An Unlikely Story
by Alaylle
Summary: The story of a rather ordinary girl... and her life in Rune Midgard! Since my website died, I added a Chapter 0 for the missing information. Minor changes from Chapters 1 through 24... Chapter 25 added now.
1. Before There's Anything, There's Zero!

I'm only going to say this once, and it will apply to all chapters from here on.

Ragnarok Online and it's various monsters don't belong to me. However, the story scenario and the characters within this story do belong to me!

---

Chapter 0: Because Before There's Anything, There's Zero!

"Hiiiiiiiyeeee!"

"Ungh… it's too early in the morning for this… wake me up in 4 hours…"

"No, you mustn't… (sigh) Alaylle needs us here so that we can finish this. (sigh)"

Alaylle knocks on the screen. "Hiiiiiiiyeeee!"

Karian shakes her head and groans. "I got woken up early for this? Alaylle, you just said that."

Kaori nods her head slowly. "That's true…"

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "Oh… right… uhh…" She then brightens considerably and smiles happily. "I'm Alaylle and you're probably wondering what in the world this chapter is about! It's more of a chapter 0. The author needs this chapter because the web page that used to have this information vanished."

Karian shrugs. "It was a cruddy web page anyway."

Kaori shakes her head slowly. "It didn't look the nicest or neatest, but it had a lot of content…"

"Anyway! First up is character introduction! Uhmm… I'm first!" Alaylle smiles happily. "I'm Alaylle Rabbien! It's nice to meet you! I'm the main character in this story!"

Karian groans and massages her temples. "Hangover + Alaylle equals not good. You don't have to shout you know."

"It is her story though." Kaori sighs and nods slowly.

Alaylle is a 16-year-old Amatsu girl who is 5'7" and will certainly not tell you her weight. She has obviously well cared for silken black hair, nearly always tied up into a ponytail with a big red ribbon tied into a bow to keep it in place. She has bangs that cover her forehead and several strands that fall in front of her ears that frame her face. She has amber colored eyes that glint golden when light hits them just right. She has smooth and soft skin, although she's slightly pale. Slight bordering on frail describes her build perfectly. Alaylle's voice is sweet and soft; usually too soft, often making her have to shout to be heard. Her usual clothing happens to be pink kimono with draping sleeves and a red hakama. The sash she wears around her waist is purple and is tied into a big bow in the back.

"That's right! I love these clothes! And this ribbon too!" Alaylle fiddles with the ribbon in her hair.

Karian crosses her arms in front of herself. "I hate to say it, but… pink is the perfect color for Alaylle… and those clothes do suit her."

Kaori nods slowly. "They are the same as her mother's clothing, so I have no complaints. (sigh)"

"Okay! Now it's Karian's turn!" Alaylle gestures over to Karian. "She and Kaori are my friends!"

Karian grins. "About time! You might not know it yet, but I'm the real reason you're reading this story!"

Kaori shakes her head calmly. "That's not true at all."

Karian happens to look very similarly to Alaylle. She has the same height, same hair color, same eye color, and same age as Alaylle. The similarities end there, though. Karian prefers wearing her hair loose, so it's about two inches below shoulder length. She likes having a hair band in her hair rather than a ribbon. Her complexion is very tanned, which makes sense, as she's a gypsy girl from Morroc. Her build is slight, but she's very lithe. Her clothing varies immensely, but she loves colorful clothing. She tries to get all the colors of the rainbow and then some in each outfit she makes.

Karian also happens to have a penchant for stealing things. If an object is not cared for, she'll swipe it without a second thought. Of course, "care" is a pretty broad definition for her. If it's not bolted down, the person obviously doesn't care for it. And if the object can be pried up from it's bolts, the person obviously doesn't care for it enough.

Alaylle waggles her pointer finger at Karian. "Stealing is wrong!"

Karian rolls her eyes. "Who asked you? Besides… I'm just… borrowing."

Kaori sighs, stares at the ground, and starts to blush. "I-it's my turn isn't it? I… I don't know if I can do this… (sigh)"

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "But it's easy, Kaori! We'll help you out!"

Karian nods. "What she said, minus the yelling."

Kaori bows her head. "Th-thank you…"

Kaori is a 15-year-old Prontera girl and is an inch shorter than Alaylle and Karian. She has wavy blonde hair, usually kept in place by two hair clips shaped like butterflies. She has emerald eyes, but they are rarely seen. Much of the time, she's looking towards the ground with her head slightly bowed. She is pale and frail, but healthy. She just doesn't get out of her house too often. She loves green clothing and tries to keep up with the latest Prontera fashions.

Kaori might act soft mannered and submissive, but she can certainly stand up for herself. Kaori also has this rather extreme obsession with Alaylle's mother. She tries to act like her, follow her around, and talk to her often.

"Hey! That's right! What's with that anyway?"

Alaylle looks over at Karian teary-eyed. "K-Karian… it was my turn to speak."

Kaori blushes deeper. "I-I just think she's the most wonderful person in the world…"

Alaylle smiles happily. "Oh, that's right! I should talk about my Mommy and Daddy! Mommy looks just like me! Well… except she's taller… she works at a flower shop in Prontera! Daddy is a blacksmith and… umm… well… he's dressed like one of those blacksmiths you see running around town! You know… that white rumpled shirt and those jeans… He also has this brown hair that looks like it needs combing! Oh yeah! He has brown eyes too! But… well… they're darker than mine and Mommy's!"

Karian glances carefully at Alaylle's clothing and Kaori's clothing. "You two look like a Christmas clothing shop exploded."

Kaori shakes her head slowly. "And you look like the dye shop exploded."

Alaylle sweatdrops.

Karian stares down at Kaori. "Oh yeah? You need to get out more, Kaori! If not, people will mistake you for a ghost at night!"

"Perhaps, but too much tanning is bad for the skin." Kaori looks up at Karian. "Ara… is that a wrinkle I see? If I'm a ghost, then you can be a ghoul."

Alaylle double sweatdrops.

Karian gets close to Kaori staring her straight in the eyes. "What did you say! I'm not a ghoul! And you should stop mixing in whatever Amastu words that you hear from Alaylle's mom or you'll end up sounding strange!"

Kaori gets equally close to Karian's eyes and returns the stare. "Aahh… did I touch somewhere sensitive there? It's better than being a maniac that steals every single thing that she can!"

Alaylle triple sweatdrops.

Karian glares at Kaori. "Submissive ghost!"

Kaori glares right back. "Pyromaniac thief!"

Alaylle bursts into giggles and Karian and Kaori quickly follow.

Alaylle tries to catch her breath after giggling and smiles happily. "Sorry about that! Karian and Kaori do that all the time! They fight like good friends do!"

Karian and Kaori blush slightly and point at each other, both of them saying at the same time, "I'm not friends with that! I'm friends with Alaylle!"

"Eh heh… I'm happy! I have two really good friends that also happen to be friends with each other!" Alaylle smiles happily and clasps her hands together in front of her. "You can tell because they're blushing with embarrassment, not anger."

Karian and Kaori glance at each other and exchange a soft smile.

Alaylle nods her head. "This should be all of the background information that was on the website! Oh, and of course, you got to see our personalities before we get into the story too, so that's a nice bonus!"

Karian shrugs. "Okay, so I guess this was worth getting up early… still… I'm going back to bed. See you in a while."

Kaori glances down at the ground. "Please keep me in mind… even though I don't say much…"

Alaylle folds her hands in front of herself and bows. "Well then! Let's start the first chapter then! Start the usual preview and reinstall the fourth wall!"

-End of Chapter 0

---

An Unlikely Story

Alaylle: "Every story has a beginning!"

Alaylle: "A beginning that starts a series of events in time's flow!"

In Chapter 1: "Might As Well Start At The Beginning!"

Alaylle: "What starts as a simple errand turns into so much more…"

---


	2. Might as Well Start at the Beginning!

Chapter 1: Might As Well Start at the Beginning!

Sunrise, the crack of dawn.

Awe-inspiring. Peaceful. Beautiful. The promise of a new day.

Such phrases are usually attributed to sunrises, but for a certain girl sleeping in her bed, it was more of an annoyance. Oh no, not annoying in a I-hate-this-peaceful-world sort of way, actually, she loved sunrises. It was more annoying in an alarm clock buzzing in your ear sort of way.

Yawning and rubbing her eyes, she sat up slowly from her bed and layered blankets and looked out the window at the purple, pre-dawn sky. She slips quietly out of bed and softly walks out of the room, her eyes half-open. Warming the stoves and the bath water in preparation for breakfast and her parent's baths... just normal, everyday things in her daily routine. What was never routine however, were the events happening outside the windows. While quietly waiting for the aforementioned items to be ready, she often looked outside from the second story of her house and onto the busy streets of Prontera. Even before dawn, those adventurers would run up and down through the streets, intent on their own business. It was far from ordinary... how these people called out for things; bought and sold... one could spend the entire day watching things happen in Prontera. Glancing back at the position of the rising sun, the girl quietly goes back to her daily chores...

After bathing and changing out of her nightclothes, the girl has a hakama and kimono on, as well as a large red ribbon tied in her hair, and works quietly at making breakfast… and stops when she looks at a Pecopeco egg. "Hmm… should I?" Her gaze goes over to the corner of the kitchen, where an odd contraption that looks like a large metal capsule with a little spigot coming out of the bottom part and many pipes coming from the top. "Well… Daddy did say it works…" She picks up a bowl from a cupboard and then walks over to the capsule.

The girl opens the capsule like a flip-top lid and sticks the Pecopeco egg into the bottom part of the capsule. She shuts the top part of the capsule with the bottom part, and the two parts fasten together with a click. Steam starts puffing out from the pipes on top of the capsule. The girl inclines her head and then quickly runs to the other end of the kitchen and hides underneath a table placed in the center of the room.

The capsule suddenly explodes in a blast of black smoke! And the girl shakes her head and sighs from underneath the table.

"Good morning, Alaylle!" calls out a deep, yet cheerful voice.

"Aahh!" The girl bumps her head on the bottom of the table. "Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch!" She gets out from underneath the table and rubs the top of her head. She turns around happily towards the man. He is tall, with an athletic build, yet not too muscular... and he could certainly use a closer shave to get rid of his whiskers. His hair is a dark brown, and looks more like a tuft rather than any actual hairstyle. "Good Morning Daddy! Don't do that! My poor head…"

"Whahaha! Sorry about that, Alaylle!" Alaylle's father blinks his eyes and looks over at the now black capsule. "Uhh… I thought I heard something explode. I guess it still has a few bugs in it…"

"Daddy! You need to spend more time testing your inventions!" Alaylle lightly taps her father on the head with the bowl in her hand. She then puts the bowl underneath the spigot of the capsule. An egg white and yolk flows out of the spigot and into the bowl. Alaylle blinks her eyes and looks into the bowl.

Alaylle's father grins triumphantly. "See! It works!"

Alaylle groans and points at the black soot. "You call this working?" She walks over to a drawer and takes out a hand-operated drill-looking device. "I'll just crack the Pecopeco eggs the normal way…"

"Aww… not gonna use the Egg Cracker again?"

Alaylle gives a dull glance back at her father.

"Bwhahaha! Joking, I'm joking!" Alaylle's father waves his open palms at Alaylle while laughing awkwardly. Alaylle can't help but giggle.

"Say... is your mother awake yet?"

Alaylle shakes her head, "Not yet..."

Alaylle's father smiles and locks his fingers together. "Good! Good, I want you to go to Geffen and get a few things I'm going to use to make a gift for your mother... don't worry about your chores for today, I'll take care of them."

Alaylle pales a bit at the mention of this, and Alaylle's father laughs again. "Don't worry about it, don't worry about it! Your mother will help me." Alaylle relaxes visibly and her color returns.

Alaylle's father fishes through his pockets and places a bag of zeny on the table. "There, 30 1,000z pieces... took a long time to save... but, I want you to go and buy 50 blue gemstones-the kind used for spells... not the normal jewelry kind. It's a pretty long walk... so you should start after breakfast! Your mother likes how they shimmer from the inside..."

"I like what from the ins-yawn... Oh... excuse me... the inside?" asks a soft voice from the doorway of the kitchen. The woman is nearly identical to Alaylle in appearance. So much so that one would easily mistake one for the other should they not look very closely.

Alaylle turns quickly in the direction of the woman. "Good Morning, Mommy!"

"Ah, umm... you like... the... uhm... insides of boiled Pecopeco eggs!" Alaylle's father says quickly while presenting her with a boiled Pecopeco egg.

Alaylle's mother shakes her head and laughs softly.

Alaylle can't help but giggle as she turns back towards finishing up her breakfast preparations.

---

After a breakfast filled with Pecopeco egg jokes, Alaylle prepares to head off to Geffen. She takes with her a basket with some apples to eat for lunch, a red potion in case something bad happens, her father's zeny pouch, and of course, a map so she doesn't get lost. Walking towards the west gate, she watches the adventurers run on by, while making sure she doesn't get in their way. Upon reaching the west gate, Alaylle stops and gulps nervously.

Alaylle whispers quietly to herself, "I-I've never been outside of Prontera before... I wonder... what's it like?".

Taking another nervous gulp, she slowly walks out of Prontera's gates into Prontera field...

End of Chapter 1

---

Chapter 2 preview!

"Bloop bloop blooooop!"

Alaylle: "Oh m-my... Wh-what is that!"

"Hmm... it's kind of cute!... But... why is it looking at my basket like that?"

In the next chapter! "Don't Feed the Porings!"

Alaylle: "Th-there's so many... N-no! Stay away! That's mine!"

---


	3. Don't Feed the Porings!

Chapter 2: Don't feed the Porings!

A massive landscape of green greets Alaylle as she awkwardly leaves Prontera from the west gate. Alaylle quietly thinks to herself, 'I-It's so green!... It's so different from the city!' and then has to quickly get out of the way of an adventurer running into Prontera's gate. 'And yet... also very similiar...' Alaylle thinks rather dryly, but can't hold the sarcastic mood for long and just bursts into giggles. She shakes her head and starts her walk to Geffen.

While walking away from Prontera, Alaylle casually pulls the map out of her pocket and takes a look, only to stop dead in her tracks. The "map" as Alaylle's father would call it, seemed to be a strange mass of squiggles and circles, looking more like doodlings than a map. "Th-this is... Daaaaaaddy! H-how am I supposed to find my way to Geffen with this?"

---

Meanwhile, back at Alaylle's house...  
"Achooo! Ungh..." Alaylle's father quickly covers his mouth as he sneezes.

"Dear... feather dusters aren't brooms or hammers... you use them gently, or you'll stir the dust everywhere" Alaylle's mother says while grinning and dusting off a windowsill. "Perhaps someone was talking about you behind your back?"

"Nahh... I'm off today, and besides, I do my job well, unless some adventurer wants to get greedy… Did I tell you about that time when someone barged into the armory wanting me to pound 15 Eluniums into one thing? I broke his armor out of spite." Alaylle's father says while trying to use the feather duster gently-and fails miserably at it. "Bah... I don't know how Alaylle manages to do this everyday..."

"Speaking of Alaylle, where is she today?"

"Uhh... doing something fun, I'm sure!"

---  
"Oh, this is so not fun..." sighs Alaylle as she walks farther west of Prontera towards the Culvert entrance.

'Ehh? Why are so many people over there?' Alaylle quickly walks over to the Culvert entrance... Lots of adventurers talking with a guard, and a Kafra lady! 'Oh! I bet she'd know how to get to Geffen with this thing!' "Uhmm... Excuse me... Excuse me!"

The Kapra lady smiles over at Alaylle, "Welcome! The Kafra Corporation wil-hey... what's a city girl like you doing out here? It's a bit dangerous, you know..."

"Aahh, umm... I was wondering... could you help me figure out this map to Geffen?" Alaylle asks hesitantly while showing her the "map".

The Kafra lady laughs as she looks at the "map". "Who drew this, your little brother? Well, it seems these little wave lines are water-and these upside-down "V"s are hills. Hmm... just follow the straight lines!"

"Oh! Thank you so much!" Alaylle smiles happily and quickly runs off to make up for her lost time, only to hear the most peculiar sound as she leaves the crowd of people...

Bloop, bloop, bloop

"Eehh?... What's that sound?" Alaylle quickly stops and looks around for the source of the strange noise. Spotting something pink and gelatin-like, she walks over to it to get a better look-and frightens terribly once it starts hopping towards her. "Kyaaaaaaahh! It's a pink-monster-thingy!" Alaylle startles so much that an apple falls from her basket and onto the ground.

Poring thought process 2000:  
New item detected: Stone  
Edible? Yes  
Commence absorption  
New item detected: Jellopy  
Edible? Yes  
Commence absorption  
New item detected: Human Female  
Edible? No  
Scanning other targets...  
New item seen: Apple  
Edible? Very Yes  
Eat it NOW, fool!  
Commence fast absorption  
vvv

Alaylle watches in surprise as the Poring zips over to the apple and gulps it down whole. "Gosh... hungry little thingie aren't you?" She fishes in her basket and pulls out an apple, setting it next to the Poring.

Doing what comes naturally to the little kleptomaniac, the Poring quickly snatches up the apple and then looks up at Alaylle.

Alaylle smiles happily at the Poring and kneels down to get a better look at it. "Aww... you're kinda cute... but I don't know what in the world you are... I've never seen your picture in any animal books that I've looked in..."

The Poring spits out a piece of paper at Alaylle and then looks down at it.

"Eww… spitting is a bad habi-huh? What's this?" Alaylle reaches over to pick up the piece of paper and then looks at it. "Aahh... this picture... it's of you, isn't it? Oh! And there's a word here... Poring?" Alaylle looks down at the Poring. "So that's what you are, huh? A Poring?"

The Poring nods and then happily starts hopping off.

"Ohh! Bye bye Poring!" Alaylle waves happily, stands up and looks around... only to see four Porings looking at her. "Aahh... more Porings! Hello!"

Poring thought-process '95:  
Scanning target...  
-Human female  
Edible? No  
Continue scan...  
-Basket  
Edible? No  
Relevant information from memory:  
Basket contains apples.  
Log: 1 minute, 16.05 seconds ago: Human female fed apple from the basket to foreign Poring.  
Commence attack on basket!  
vvv

Alaylle eeps as all four Porings suddenly jump at her basket. She quickly lifts it up into the air out of the Porings' reach. "N-no! Bad Porings! These are mine! Please... these are my lunch!" She quickly tries to get away from the Porings, but they keep hopping after her and trying to hop into her to jostle an apple out of the basket.

Alaylle keeps running west, but slowly manages to squeeze out an idea. She takes an apple out of her basket and throws it as far east as she can. "There! Go get that apple!"

The Porings, following natural instinct, (and refusing to upgrade to 2000 or :3 (pronounced "Colon 3") quickly all change course to get the first bite out of the newly dropped apple.

Alaylle quickly stops running once she notices that the Porings have stopped following her. "Whew... that was close!... I guess I shouldn't feed the Porings... it seems to give them the wrong idea..." Alaylle smiles awkwardly and takes out her map as she catches her breath. "Let's see... Oohh... I'm quite a bit closer now! Umm... there should be a lot of water... here!"

Alaylle steps into the region known as Rocker Coast...

End of Chapter 2  
---  
Chapter 3 Preview!

sounds of horrid violin screeching

Alaylle: "Kyaahh... what's with this terrible sound? My poor ears..."  
"I hope I can get out of here without losing my hearing!"

In the next Chapter! "Rocking Around the Coast!"

Alaylle: "These Rockers... are just so out of tune!"  
---


	4. Rocking Around the Coast!

Chapter 3: Rocking Around the Coast!

Alaylle hums happily to herself as she walks through the small wooded area marking the entrance to Rocker Coast. 'This trip to Geffen sure is something else!... At least I'm making good time, though...'

Alaylle stops for a moment and glances down at the map. 'Hmm... okay... there should be a hill nearby... Go up the hill... then turn right and enter Geffen Forest...' She puts the map away carefully and follows the over scuffed path to the hill and slowly works her way up...

And then abruptly stops halfway up the incline. A slight, high-pitched noise can be heard. Alaylle can't help but stop and look around confusingly. She gulps to make her ears click, but the high-pitched noise continues. Alaylle shrugs and continues up the incline, only to have the screeching noise continue to get louder as she slowly walks to the top of the hill.

Alaylle frowns and slides the basket so her arm holds it up as she covers her ears with her hands. "Kyaaahh... what is making this awful noise?" She turns right after going up the incline and starts heading into the forest when a giant green grasshopper suddenly jumps out of the nearby trees and hops over to her.

Alaylle winces as the source of the high-pitched screeching noises hops right in front of her and plays it's screeching violin notes loudly for her. "Kyaaaahh! My poor ears... please stop!"

The grasshopper stops, and glances down at the ground, looking terribly sad, looking ready to drop it's violin and bow.

Alaylle removes her hands from her ears and quickly shakes her head. "Oohh no! I didn't mean it that way!"

The grasshopper just keeps looking dejectedly at the ground and starts hopping away.

Alaylle runs after the grasshopper, "No no no! I'm sure you play the violin wonderfully!"

The grasshopper turns back around to Alaylle and readies it's violin and bow for a screeching encore.

Alaylle pales a bit and shakes her head quickly, "Wait!... Umm, Mr. Grasshopper... umm... before you play... could... umm... I see your violin and bow first?"

The grasshopper shrugs and gives the requested items to Alaylle.

Alaylle smiles happily and plucks the four strings of the violin gently... and then becoming twirlly-eyed from the terribly off-key sounds they produce. "Kyaaaaah... this violin... it's not tuned! No wonder! I'll tune it for you, okay Mr. Grasshopper?"

Alaylle slowly adjusts the knobs at the end of the violin and plucks the strings several times. "There!" She then puts the violin against her chin and tries to play a note... only to make a screeching sound very much like someone scratching a chalkboard. "Kyaaaahh... owiee... my ears... Your bow is loose!" She carefully tightens the bow, but not too much so that she doesn't break the horsehairs.

Alaylle smiles happily and plays four notes on the violin. "Perfect!" "Here you go Mr. Grasshopper!" Alaylle happily hands the violin and bow to the grasshopper.

The grasshopper blinks and then readies it's violin.

Alaylle smiles happily and sits down carefully in the grass.

The large green grasshopper starts to play... and very well at that! So much so that it almost drops the violin and bow after hearing it's first note! It quickly recovers and starts hopping in a circle around Alaylle while playing. After making three circles around Alaylle it suddenly stops and hops close to her, putting away it's violin and bow and taking out another leaf to shade Alaylle-just in time to save her from being drenched by some rain.

Alaylle claps her hands happily once the music stops. "Waii! That was wonderful!" She then looks up at the leaf shading her. "Oh... thank you!"

The grasshopper thinks for a moment and takes a book with a bookmark in it and places it onto the ground next to Alaylle.

"Hmm?... For me?"

The grasshopper quickly nods.

Alaylle carefully opens the book to the book marked page. On the page is a picture of the large green grasshopper, along with a name and description. The bookmark itself seems to be another piece of paper with a picture of the grasshopper as well. Alaylle reads out loud, "Hmm... Rocker... a large grasshopper normally with a price on it's head because of the obnoxious music that it plays. Hated by farmers, adventurers, travelers, and especially music critics." Alaylle looks at the piece of paper and the entry in the book. "So that means... you're a Rocker, huh?"

The Rocker would fall straight onto the ground right now, face-first... only it would leave it and Alaylle drenched from dropping the leaves, so it manages to simply nod instead.

"Gosh... Thank you so much, Mr. Rocker!" Alaylle smiles happily as she puts the book in her basket. The rain slows to a drizzle as Alaylle puts the book away.

The Rocker puts it's extra leaf away and pulls out it's violin and bow again, starting to play once more. It waves and starts happily hopping away, playing the violin.

Alaylle waves happily back, "Bye bye Mr. Rocker!" and slowly stands up. "Umm... now... what was I doing?... Oh yeah! Going to Geffen!" Alaylle quickly scrambles into Geffen Forest to make up her lost time.

Meanwhile, a few steps away...  
The Rocker with it's newly tuned violin was about to run into the bane of it's existence... a Novice with a Knight...

"Rocker!" cried the Novice.  
"I got it!" grins the Knight... and then immediately gawks and can't believe his eyes-errr... ears.  
"Hey... Attack it!" grumbles the Novice.  
"Nuh uh... That ain't no Rocker! Plays it's music too well... L-let's find another..." the Knight says shakily while dragging the Novice away.

The Rocker blinks and then suddenly bursts into a fresh round of happy violin music.

...and was strangely saved.

End of Chapter 3  
---

Chapter 4 Preview!

Alaylle: "This forest... is like a maze! Even with Daddy's map..."  
"I-I don't know if I can find my way out..."

In the next Chapter! "An Abridged Forest"

Alaylle: "Can... someone help me?... Please?"  
---


	5. An Abridged Forest

Chapter 4: "An Abridged Forest"

Alaylle happily hums as she walks through the valley at the entrance to Geffen Forest. Sighing softly, she walks over to a tree and sits down next to its trunk. "Whew... traveling sure is tiring! Time for some lunch, I think!" Fishing through her basket, she pulls out an apple and the book, flipping through the pages as she takes small bites out of the red apple.

"Hmm... huh?" Alaylle blinks her eyes quickly as she finds the "Apple" entry. "Clover family?... Huh?" She quickly looks back and forth at the apple in her hand and the picture in her book. "What a strange book... listing apples..." Alaylle shakes her head as she continues eating.

"I wonder what else I can find that this book has listings on?" Alaylle looks around slowly, spotting and identifying Fabres, Lunatics, and Pupas. She finishes eating three apples and puts the cores in her basket. Fishing through the basket again, she pulls out her father's map and takes a look.

"Daddy... honestly... This part of the map... I can't read it at all... its all squiggles! I can't tell where the hills and water are different than the route I'm supposed to take!" Alaylle sighs and glances down at the ground, spotting a worn stripe on the grass, indicating frequent travel. "I guess I'll follow that... and hope that it takes me to Geffen..." Alaylle gets to her feet and follows the stripe...

---  
Meanwhile, back in Prontera-

"Achhoo! Ungh... not again..." Alaylle's father blows his nose on his shirt sleeve.

"Dear... are you sure you're not coming down with a cold? That's the sixth or seventh time you've sneezed all day." Alaylle's mother glances concernedly at her husband. "That's it... I'm going to make you some lunch-you rest now!"

Alaylle's father pales somewhat and follows her as she walks into the kitchen, "Oh no dear... no need to cook... really, I'm fine!" "Achooo!"

---  
"Daddy... your map doesn't help at all... and this forest... it's a maze!" Alaylle sighs as she glances at a bridge that she has passed about two times already. "I'm not getting anywhere at all... I'm just going in circles!"

A large pink butterfly suddenly flies out of the trees and over to a flower growing from a tree. In mere moments after, a large bee flies out of the same trees and over to another tree flower.

"Gosh... what are those?" Alaylle quickly pulls out her book and looks them up... surprisingly, the entries are on the same page. "Hmm... Creamy... A once docile butterfly that has grown from a Fabre to a Pupa, and now into its current state. Very dangerous, as recent species have developed a dagger-like proboscis that is used to drink nectar from flowers and defend itself from prey. In certain cases, the Creamy will also drain the life out of its victim. A natural rival of the Hornet." "Umm... what's a Pro-oh... here it is..." "A proboscis is a tongue-like tube that butterflies and many other insects possess." Alaylle looks up at the Creamy. "Doesn't seem so dangerous..."

Alaylle shrugs and looks at the entry for the large bee. "Hornet... a drone of the queen bee, Mistress. Collects nectar from flowers to be made into honey. Has a small, gentle appearance until it is threatened. Then, it defends itself with its poison stinger. Has a tendency to swarm predators. Natural nectar-gathering rival of the Creamy." Alaylle looks over at the Hornet. Then back at the Creamy. Back... forth... back... forth... "Uh oh..."

Sure enough, once the two bugs end their distraction with the flowers, they simultaneously turn towards each other. The Hornet charges at the Creamy, stinger first, while the Creamy flutters wildly, preparing to dodge and counter.

Alaylle watches the butterfly and the bee fight for a moment, and then quickly shakes her head. "Stop! Stop it you two!"

Of course, they don't bother listening to the strange girl with pink clothes... and ended up knocking each other out.

"Oohh! See? Now no one gets those flowers!" Alaylle sits down next to the two stunned bugs. "Now apologize to each other!"

The Hornet buzzes rather dully and the Creamy hums in the same tone.

"Okay... I think that'll do!" Alaylle fishes through her basket and takes out the red potion she brought along. She uncorks it and turns it on its side, with the lip facing the two bugs. "Here you two... share!" Alaylle watches the two bugs carefully and none gets more potion than the other. "See? That wasn't so bad was it?"

The Creamy and Hornet quickly fly back up into the air after drinking from the potion. They both stare at each other, seeming ready for Round 2.

"Oh no you two don't! Stop it this instant! I didn't give you that so that you two can start fighting again! You know... you two could have gathered a lot more nectar instead of fighting like this!"

The Hornet and Creamy glance at each other, exchanging a few hums and buzzes. They fly over to the flowers and gather the rest of the nectar from them, then fly back to Alaylle.

"Um... say... do you two know where Geffen is?... I'm kinda lost..." Alaylle looks up hopefully at the two. More buzzing and hums are exchanged... and the two nod and then start flying at a steady pace. Alaylle hops to her feet and follows the two. "Yay! Thank goodness, I thought I'd be lost here forever!" The two bugs sweatdrop and then pick up the pace a bit.

"Yay! The way out of the forest! Thank you so much you two!" Alaylle quickly runs out of the west exit of Geffen Forest before she gets lost again.

The two bugs watch Alaylle until she's out of sight, and then look at each other... If they could grin or smile, they would. The two charge at each other, proboscis and stinger ready and willing to inflict grievous harm upon each other. Naturally, the two knock each other out again. The two bugs twitch on the ground, with swirlly eyes, buzzing and humming loudly in laughter and pain. Soon, the site of battle is filled with Creamys and Hornets rushing each other, and ending up being very much like the two that lead Alaylle.

Oh well... can't change everything.

---  
"Whaa! Geffen is right there!" Alaylle smiles happily as she walks along the plain that curves around a river to Geffen. The large spire of Geffen Tower is easily visible, as are the city walls.

End of Chapter 4  
---  
Chapter 5 Preview!

Alaylle: "Geffen... the city of magic... it sure took long enough to get here!"  
"Umm... now what was I supposed to do here again?... Oh yeah! Daddy's blue gemstones!"

In the next Chapter: "Grumbling in Geffen!"

: "Eh? Hey Rootfoot! Never thought I'd see you here!"

Alaylle!  
---


	6. Grumbling in Geffen!

Chapter 5: "Grumbling in Geffen!"

Alaylle happily walks down the stairs that make up the east entrance to Geffen. "Yay! Finally here! So... this is Geffen, huh? Seems like a really magical place! I mean... there aren't even any large walls or gates around the city... Must be magically protected!" Alaylle looks around as she walks along the circular road around the city.

Alaylle draws to a halt and thinks for a moment. "Uhm... now why was it that I came to Geffen? So many things happened on the way here... I kinda forgot..." Alaylle fishes through her basket and finds her father's zeny pouch. "Oohh! That's right! Blue gemstones!... Uhh... 50, I think... Okay!... Umm... now... to find the store that sells them!" Alaylle continues her walk around the outer circle of Geffen.

Alaylle happily walks towards the southwest corner of Geffen's outer circle and looks over at the shop. "Hmm... maybe this place?" She is about to open the door when the door opens on it's own and a young woman runs out.

"Kyahahaha! I got it! Dad's gonna go nuts when he sees this !" the woman grins to herself and looks towards the person she passed. "Eh? Whoa!" The young woman runs back to Alaylle and looks her over. "Uh huh... uh huh... It's really you! Hey Rootfoot! Never thought I'd see you here! Thinking of shedding your roots?"

Alaylle startles and looks over at the young woman. "K-Karian? What are you doing here?"

"Aaaaahh, just doing the usual stuff... you know... Do I really need a reason to be here? How about you?" Karian lifts her arms above her head and places her hands behind her neck.

"Umm... just shopping for blue gems... 50 of them to be exact... Daddy wants them" Alaylle points to the zeny pouch.

Karian eyes the zeny pouch and then glances at Alaylle. "You were gonna buy them here? What a waste! Here, come on, I'll show you where to buy them!" Karian quickly grabs Alaylle by her ponytail and drags her towards Geffen Tower. Alaylle, being somewhat used to this, just lets herself be led.

"Heh heh heh... perfect cover..." Karian whispers to herself and grins. "Oh Alaylle, just buy them from that vender over there... it's a lot cheaper!"

"Oh... alright..." Alaylle walks over to the vender. "Umm... excuse me... how much is a blue gemstone?... Oh... alright..." Alaylle carefully buys one blue gemstone at a time and tucks it carefully into her basket.

Karian grins and stays behind Alaylle, carefully stealing whatever she can from the crowded venders and shoppers. A few bumps, jostles and some slight of hand, not to mention a bright pink dressed girl as a cover, and Karian quickly does what she does best. Needless to say, by the time Alaylle finished buying the gemstones, Karian was quite happy with the things she's "borrowed" from the people wandering around Geffen.

"Alright, all done! I saved 6000 zeny! Thank you so much, Karian! Daddy will be thrilled." Alaylle turns around and smiles happily at Karian.

Karian just grins back as she stuffs a dagger into the pocket hidden in her long hair, "Oh, no need to thank me! But you know what? Let's get a warp out of this place before it gets late, okay?" Karian grabs Alaylle's ponytail again and drags her over to an acolyte. "Excuse me... here... could you zap us to Prontera, please?" Karian asks sweetly while giving the acolyte a 1000 zeny coin. "Alaylle... when you see that beam of light thingy... jump into it... be quick! Others are gonna try to do the same!"

The acolyte nods and casts the warp portal to open on Karian.

"Kyahahaha! Yes!" Karian laughs as she vanishes into the light of the warp portal.

Alaylle looks nervously at the light beam, but then sees other people jumping into it. "Uhmm... okay... here goes!" Alaylle closes her eyes and jumps in- and lands in the west part of Prontera. Alaylle opens her eyes and looks around, blinking. "Gosh... that was neat!"

"Kyahahaha! Dad's gonna go crazy when he sees this!" Karian pulls a circlet out of a pocket and puts it on while taking off her hairband. "I feel like a mage now! See you later, Alaylle!" Karian continues laughing and runs off.

"Oh! Bye bye Karian! And thank you!" Alaylle awkardly waves to Karian's retreating form. "Well... that was a strange trip..." Alaylle smiles awkwardly as she walks towards home.

End of Chapter 5  
---  
Chapter 6 Preview!

Alaylle: "Whew... that's enough adventuring from me!"

Karian: "Not if I can help it! Let's see... yes, this would be perfect for her!"

: "Oh no... Karian, don't do that..."

In the Next Chapter: "A Strange Introduction!"

?#2: "Aha! A visitor at last!"

Alaylle: sweatdrops  
---


	7. A Strange Introduction!

Chapter 6: "A Strange Introduction!"

Alaylle happily unlocks the front door and opens it, only to be rushed by her father. "Eep! Daddy! What's wrong?"

Alaylle's father is a bit pale, "Your mother... tried to cook! It was terrible, horrifying, a pox on humankind! I was lucky there was a meat tenderizer handy or it would've gotten us!"

Alaylle's mother glances with the "Look of Death" at her husband, "Oh, it wasn't that bad... I mean... it's not like it was going to bite...hard." Her gaze softens as she sees Alaylle. "Hello dear... had a fun time outside?"

Alaylle smiles happily. "Uh huh! I'll tell you all about it!-While making dinner!" Alaylle happily gives the basket to her father with a happy wink and starts with her evening routine.

---  
"Yeah! It really happened that way! The animals outside of Prontera sure are nice!" Alaylle smiles happily as she delicately eats a slice of steamed carrot.

"Grmphphhpif! Fhmeppihoodihh..." uhh... states Alaylle's father as he tries to talk while shoveling food into his mouth.

Alaylle's mother glances sideways at her husband as she carefully cuts a piece of fish, "Allow me to translate, Alaylle? He said 'Good for you! It's always good to go outside once in a while!'...Honestly, dear..."

Alaylle's father finishes eating and wipes his mouth on a napkin. "Aaahh... delicious as always, Alaylle! Excuse me for a moment... I need to get something."

Alaylle's mother glances over her daughter, "That was faster than usual... maybe next time, you could make something that required him to actually chew his food?" Mother and daughter both burst into giggles and then slowly finish dinner.

Alaylle's father walks in holding a necklace and two bracelets made of blue gemstones. "Dear... for our anniversary!" He smiles happily as he hold them out to his wife.

"Oh! You remembered! How wonderful! You naughty husband, no wonder we were cleaning today... you wanted to throw me off!" Alaylle's mother and father embrace, while Alaylle smiles softly to herself as she washes the dishes.

---  
"Heh... so had a lot of fun yesterday huh?" Karian says with a grin.

"Uhmm... it wasn't that much fun... but it was different!" Alaylle, Karian, and another young woman are standing around the east entrance to Prontera square.

"K-Karian told me all about it... honestly, Alaylle, you shouldn't have left like that... You know how hard it is for your parents to keep the house..." The young woman sighs and keeps her eyes downcast.

"Nah... I think the traveling was good for her! And don't say it isn't! You've traveled a lot yourself, Kaori!" Karian says as she glances at her. "And for crying out loud, look up!"

Kaori smiles slightly at the request that Karian always asks of her. "Hmm... perhaps it was good for you, Alaylle... but... are you going to do it again?"

"Nuh uh! That's enough adventuring for me!" Alaylle says while shaking her head quickly.

'Hmph... not if I have something to do with it... Hmm...' Karian grins to herself and thinks for a moment. "Heh heh heh... yes, this would be perfect for her..."

Kaori glances over at Karian, "Did you say something, Karian?"

"Uhh... no... just thinking to myself! Say, I wanna show you two something!" Karian grins and leads them off.

---  
"Gosh... it looks... kinda frightening!" Alaylle says as she looks up at the building.

"Nah... it's not... I hear it's really neat inside!" Karian says with a grin.

"I-I-I've heard of stories of screams and yells coming from inside of there!" Kaori says while glancing up at the building.

"Awww... come on, it's just the church... it's not like something's gonna jump out at you when you enter it and gobble you up!" Karian says while looking up at the church of Prontera. "Alaylle, come on, go in! We'll be right here!" 'Come on... I hope this works!'

"Umm... alright..." Alaylle gulps as she walks into Prontera Parish's doors. She turns around, looking for Karian and Kaori. "Ehh? Hey! You two were supposed to come in too!"

"AHA! A visitor at last!" A minister jumps seemingly out of nowhere at Alaylle and grabs her shoulders as she turns around towards the entrance.

"Kyaaaaaaaa!" Alaylle closes her eyes and stiffens as if a monster has grabbed her.

"Uh, oh... Sorry about that." The minister smiles awkwardly as he releases Alaylle's shoulders. Alaylle slowly and awkwardly turns back around. "Welcome to Prontera Parish! Sorry again... it's just that so many nowadays don't wish to become acolytes..." The minister sighs and glances around. "The place gets rather dusty and dirty... no one ever cleans now... and the acolytes nowadays are always out and about!"

Alaylle slowly manages to recover her wits. "Aahh... I see... but... did you really have to jump out at me like that? From behind me, even?"

"Eh heh heh... sorry... got too excited... Father Renauld at your service!" The minister rubs the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Umm nice to meet you, Father Renauld... well, if you really need help, I'll help!" Alaylle smiles happily at the father.

"Really? Wonderful, wonderful! Maybe one day you'll become an acolyte too!" The minister smiles happily and hopefully at Alaylle.

"Uhmm... well... I dunno about that... but I'll still help!"

---  
Karian removes her ear from the door. "Eh heh heh... perfect... my plan is working perfectly!" Karian grins and laughs out loud.

"Wh-what plan?" Kaori looks over at Karian curiously.

Karian slowly turns towards Kaori... Kaori could be so quiet sometimes; it was easy to forget she was there. "Uhh... no plan! But Alaylle is perfectly fine... so... let's head on home for today! It is getting late!" Karian awkwardly laughs and runs off.

"Oh no you don't! I know that line! You aren't getting us in trouble again!" Kaori actually raises her downcast gaze and chases after Karian.

End of Chapter 6  
---  
Chapter 7 Preview!

Alaylle: "I-I have to go back there?"

Renauld: "That's right... there's a person in Geffen Forest that needs this..."

In the next Chapter: "A Strange Errand, and a Shining Find!"

Alaylle: "I hope I remember my way..."  
---


	8. A Strange Errand, and a Shining Find!

Chapter 7: "A Strange Errand, and a Shining Find!"

Alaylle hums as she walks from home to the church. 'Hmm... the first day of helping out there... I wonder what Father Renauld will make me do?' Alaylle knocks at the door of the Prontera Parish and then slowly opens it, looking inside cautiously. She quietly walks inside and closes the door gently.

"Yahaaaa!" Father Renauld suddenly jumps out of nowhere at Alaylle and grabs her shoulders again.

"Kyaaaaaa!" Alaylle stiffens again, but then opens up one eye. "Father Renauld... don't DO that!" She sighs and relaxes, "Honestly... just as goof-ballish like my Daddy..."

"Eh heh heh... sorry about that Alaylle... kind of forgot that you were coming in." Father Renauld chuckles and leads Alaylle deeper into the church. "This... is the main part of the church... the altar room."

The altar room looks… well… like a hurricane passed through it. A dusty, brown hurricane that happened to pick up many empty bottles, confetti, and rice, all of differing ages and stages of decay and decomposition.

Alaylle gasps at how dusty and dirty the place is. "Father... How..."

"Oh, we've just neglected cleaning the place for a while... and a wedding just occurred here too..." Father Renauld looks embarrassed. "And... well... some of the inhabitants and visitors here are less than tidy..."

"Umm... well, there's enough here to keep me occupied for a while... Where are your cleaning thingies?" Alaylle glances around quickly.

Father Renauld smiles, "Just ask the sister over there... to tell you the truth, I have some business to take care of. I'll check on you later, okay?"

Alaylle nods happily and looks over at the Sister Nun. "Umm... I'm Alaylle! Nice to meet you!"

Sister Nun smiles back, "Nice to meet you too, dear. I'm Sister Nun... at least that's what everyone calls me." She looks irritated for a moment as she grumbles softly, "I have a name too, you know... It's-" Sister Nun says a combination of syllables and utterances that no sane person would ever be able to duplicate. "But nooo... it's always 'Sister Nun' this and 'Sister Nun' that... I HAVE A NAME!" She glances back at Alaylle looking embarrassed, "Sorry about that... here you go... good luck... this grime... it almost seems to have an intelligence of its own and will try to avoid your efforts to clean it." She hands Alaylle a mop, a bucket, and some clean cloths.

"Aahh... don't worry about that! I have some experience with... uhh... inanimate objects that show intelligence." Alaylle smiles awkwardly.

---  
Meanwhile, back at Alaylle's house...

"Dear... really... you don't need to make lunch anymore!" Alaylle's father blocks a slice of cheese thrown at him with an improvised shield: a pot lid.

"Hmm... you have a point there, dear... but just one point!" Alaylle's mother says as she gives a meat tenderizer mallet to Alaylle's father.

Alaylle's father grips the wooden mallet and charges at the Savage and cheese sandwich with an attitude problem. "Die recipe from he- Err..." He glances at his wife for a moment and stops his charge, sweatdropping. "Uhh... I mean... you evil sandwich!" Alaylle's father quickly smashes the sandwhich, causing it to stop moving and spitting cheese slices. "Whew... how about we eat out for lunch? Whoa!" He quickly ducks to dodge a bite from a man-eating salad, complete with razor sharp carrot teeth.

---  
"Honestly... who sticks chewing gum underneath a chair?" sighs Alaylle as she slowly scrubs the resin off of the underside of a seating bench near the pew.

Father Renauld slowly peeks out from his room down the corridor to look at the main prayer room of the church-and nearly falls over in surprise. He runs on in and stares at the now clean altar room and looks around for Alaylle. "Alaylle? Where are you?... did you do this?"

"I'm over here, Father!" Alaylle rolls out from underneath a bench and onto the aisle. "I finished the floors... they're clean enough to lie down on now! But... I still need to finish waxing all of the bench-thingies..." Alaylle slowly gets to her feet. "Did you need something else done?"

Father Renauld blinks his eyes for a moment, but then recovers. "Acutally... yes... I have a package that needs to be delivered to a colleague of mine in Geffen Forest. Umm... don't worry about the benches... could you go and give this to him?"

"Aahh... Geffen Forest... I guess I could go there!... Uhmm... I hope I remember my way..."

"Hmm... well, don't worry... he's by some bridges... and he can tell you how to get out of the forest too." Father Renauld gives the package to Alaylle. "Oh... don't worry about the cleaning tools... I'll clean them up."

"Aahh... alright... I guess I'll start right now then!"

"Yes... please do..."

---  
Alaylle hmms as she checks the things she has in her basket that she retrieved from home. "Apples... a red potion... and the package... Oohh, the book too of course!" Alaylle nods and walks west of Prontera's west gate.

"Well... at least I know my way around this part... Oh!" Alaylle quickly looks down at a Poring that has stopped at her feet. "Oh, Mr. Poring! I never thought I'd see you again!"

The Poring nods happily but then winces.

"Hmm?" Alaylle takes a careful look at the Poring... it has a rather large dent on top of it's head. "Oh no! Did a mean person do that to you?" She pulls out the red potion, uncorks it and gives it to the Poring to drink. "Hmm..." Alaylle thinks for a moment and pulls out a bandage from her basket. She carefully patches up the dent with a bandage that looks like a little X. "There you go!... Say, I can recognize you really easily now, with that bandage on your head!"

The Poring nods happily and starts bouncing away-only to zip right back quickly once Alaylle drops a few apples for it.

"Hee hee hee... see you later Mr. Poring!" Alaylle waves happily to it and continues her walk west.

---  
Alaylle arrives without incident (and without seeing Mr. Rocker, sniff) in Geffen Forest. "Oh my... I hope I don't get lost... Father Renauld... he told me to stick to the bridges... so... it's not so bad... I remember the forest that far, at least..." Alaylle hums as she walks through the forest and makes her way to the bridges.

She carefully crosses each bridge and looks around alertly, looking for anyone that would think of living here. "Oohh! There's someone!" Alaylle runs up to the person quietly meditating on a small island. "Umm... excuse me... are you a friend of Father Renauld?"

The Hermit, for lack of a better term, (especially with that scraggy hair) opens his eyes and smiles at Alaylle. "Why yes, I am... Oh, do you by chance have a package from him? He's being rather late with delivering things recently..."

"Umm... yes I do! Here..." Alaylle pulls the package out of her basket and hands it over.

"Wonderful! I've been waiting for this for a while!" He looks up at Alaylle and smiles. "Are you an Acolyte in training, by the way?"

"Oh no... I'm just helping out Father Renauld..." Alaylle smiles happily.

"Hmm... how nice of you. How do you like this forest?" He seems to be thinking of something...

"Umm... well, I like it! It's nice and peaceful, and... so green!"

"Well then! How about taking this? You can bring a little bit of the forest back with you" the hermit gives Alaylle a small pot with dirt in it.

"Gosh... really? Alright!" Alaylle happily accepts the pot.

"Do you need help finding your way out? I understand this forest can be quite confusing..."

"I think I can find my way out..." Alaylle looks over the little pot.

"Alright then... farewell!" he smiles at Alaylle and goes back to his meditation.

Alaylle waves goodbye happily and starts looking around for a plant to take with her. "Hmm..." She puts the small pot into her basket and pulls out her book. She flips through a few pages as she walks, and stops upon seeing a small green plant. "Green Plant... that's not a very original name... Uhmm... A common weed that grows nearly everywhere. It's fern-like leaves can be used to cure poison." Alaylle shakes her head and is about to move on when something catches her eye.

Alaylle carefully looks behind a tree and spots a plant that shines with iridescence in the light. "Oooo... how pretty! I wonder what this is?" Alaylle quickly flips through several more pages. "Shining Plant... an extremely rare plant that is so rarely seen, it is said to be a mirage. No information available about it's leaves. Gosh!" Alaylle quickly puts the book away, carefully uproots the plant and sets it into the pot.

Alaylle stares at the plant for a moment, but can't help but feel guilty. 'Oohh... I really shouldn't... I probably wouldn't be able to take care of it right... I know who can, though!' She carefully takes the plant and pot and heads back to the hermit that is meditating.

"Umm... excuse me... I'm sorry to interrupt you again, but... I saw this, and... well..." Alaylle shows the man the plant as he slowly opens his eyes, which then widen considerably. "I... know I can't take care of it well enough... and... I can't help but feel guilty... but I know you can! Here... I can't take it with me..." She gently places the pot down in front of him.

The hermit looks up at Alaylle kindly, "Are you sure?... You did find it and all..." He looks at Alaylle's eyes and then nods, "I'll take good care of it... don't worry. Ahh... here..." He takes out a butterfly wing and gives it to Alaylle. "Do you know how to use these?... Just toss it up into the air and it'll take you home."

Alaylle looks carefully at the butterfly wing and then tosses it up. "Like thi-" Alaylle vanishes in a gust of wind as the magic of the wing takes her back to Prontera.

"Hmm... interesting..." the hermit gets up from his meditative pose and over to his homing pigeon. He takes out a small piece of paper and writes quickly, then tucking the message into the pigeon's talons and sending the pigeon on it's way to Prontera Parish. He quietly walks back to the potted plant and waves his hand over the Shining Plant. The plant slowly fades to the color of a Green Plant. "Very interesting indeed..."

End of Chapter 7  
---  
Chapter 8 Preview!

Alaylle: "You want me to go WHERE!"

Renauld: "I'm sorry dear... I know it sounds a bit extreme..."  
"But she really needs this..."

In the next Chapter: "The Dangerous Desert!"

Alaylle: "Alright... but I'm sooo not walking there!"  
---


	9. The Dangerous Desert!

Chapter 8: "The Dangerous Desert!"

Alaylle hums as she gently stirs a pot of stew using a wooden spoon. "This should be almost done!" She dips the spoon into the pot and takes a small sip from the spoon. "Hmm... maybe a little more stock... a bit too thick..." Alaylle adds a bit more liquid into the pot and continues stirring.

"Mmm... something smells wonderful!" Father Renauld follows his nose as he walks into the churches kitchen.

Alaylle giggles. "Father Renauld! You just ate breakfast! You can't eat lunch yet!... And anyways, this won't be done for about three hours."

"Ah well, I'll survive on the smell." Father Renauld laughs. "Oh, by the way, thank you for helping me deliver that package a while ago."

"You mean... the package to that hermit?" Alaylle asks as she continues stirring the stew.

Father Renauld shakes his head, "Hermit? He has a name you know... His name is Father Yosuke, and he's contemplating nature, not just living there." He glances at the stew pot. "Are you sure it's going to take three more hours?"

"Yes... three more hours..." Alaylle stops stirring the stew pot. "I suppose I can make for you something to tide over the time, though..." Alaylle goes over to the counter and checks what is left. "By the way… speaking of names… I can't pronounce Sister Nun's real name… can you?"

"I've tried for the past three years… it's just easier to call her 'Sister Nun'… although a bit more painful…" Father Renauld looks over at Alaylle preparing more food, "Wait... you made that yummy-smelling stew and still have ingredients left over from today's lunch supply?"

"Umm... yes... if you add too much to the stew, it would lose it's flavor... Hmm..." Alaylle walks over to Father Renauld and hands him a plate and a fork with a baked sweet potato covered in honey. "Here you go!... I always make these for Daddy... he just loves honey!"

"Ah, thank you Alaylle!" Father Renauld takes a small bite. "Ooo... a bit hot... but delicious!" He halts for a moment. "Hmm... hot... that reminds me... Alaylle, could you deliver another package? It just came in this week..."

"Huh? Well, sure! Where am I going to be delivering this one to?" Alaylle removes the wooden spoon from the stew pot and puts the lid on the pot.

"Eh heh heh... Umm... well... this might sound a bit extreme, but... it's in the desert." Father Renauld takes out the package and places it on the table.

"You want me to go WHERE!" Alaylle nearly drops the wooden spoon she holds in surprise.

"I'm sorry dear... I know it sounds a bit extreme... but she really needs this package..." Father Renauld starts to look ready to bolt out of the room, if necessary.

"Oh well... I'll do it... but... I'm not gonna have to walk there, am I?" Alaylle puts the wooden spoon into the sink.

"I-I'm afraid so... we lack the money to afford a warp to Morroc..." Father Renauld calms down somewhat now that Alaylle doesn't have the spoon.

Alaylle sighs softly. "Aahh... well... I'll do my best!"

Father Renauld smiles happily at Alaylle. "Wonderful!... Don't worry about getting lost, though... I have a good map of the desert!" He places a rolled up piece of paper on the package. "But... you should take along lots of water, okay?"

---  
Alaylle hums as she walks south of Prontera, carrying her basket as usual. She glances at the map once in a while, but spends much of the time taking in the scenery. Oh, and identifying monsters with her book, of course. As she gets closer to the desert and finally steps foot in it, she really starts to notice how different the temperature is.

'Whew... it's so hot... How can Karian stand this sort of heat?' Alaylle takes out a bottle of water and drinks from it. She then blinks her eyes and looks north… then south. 'Okay, what's going on here! I take a few steps south of nice Prontera, and then it suddenly turns into a desert?' She watches a herd of Pecopeco run by... and several Condors circling around the desert. 'Well... at least there's plenty of life around here... so that's a comforting sign!' Alaylle pulls out her book frequently as she walks south and west...

"Chonchon... a giant fly. Flies around haphazardly in search of food to scavenge. It's wings can also be used to fly in a manner similar to it for a brief moment..." "How strange..."

"Condor... a small vulture that circles the desert in search of food. A common scavenger and also known as a source of bird meat." 'Oohh... so that's what I cook with sometimes...'

"Pecopeco... a large toucan-like bird that has lost the ability to fly in exchange for fast footspeed. Domesticated varieties are used for bird meat, and can often be ridden. Wild varieties often stay together in packs..."

"Picky... a young Pecopeco, similar to how people call young chickens a chick. Upon hatching from its egg, it is alone and must forage for itself. Although small, it is hardy enough to easily survive in the desert."

'Yeah... lots of life in the desert...' Alaylle passes a large hole lined with teeth. 'Gosh... how frightening! I certainly won't be going in there...' Alaylle walks quickly past it and continues on the path west.

'The scenery... it's kind of dull after a while... I mean... no matter where I look... there's nothing but sand... but at least the map helps out a lot... there are a few rocky cliffs that make good landmarks!... Eh?' Alaylle is jolted quickly out of her thoughts by a sudden loud buzzing sound. 'Sounds like a Chonchon... only... a lot louder!' She quickly hides behind a tree, takes out her book and flips through the pages, trying to make sense of the sound.

Alaylle's eyes quickly find an entry that mentions a loud Chonchon sound. 'Dragonfly... a green Chonchon which commands a large group of Chonchons. It can be easily identified by a... loud Chonchon buzzing from the group's unified buzzing. The Dragonfly will eat anything in it's path, from trees to animals, using it's Chonchons as an army.' Alaylle quietly closes the book and puts it away, peeking out from behind the tree... and staring in shock as they destroy a cactus, leaving very little remains.

Alaylle gulps and hides back behind the tree. 'How... frightening! If it should see me...' She startles and looks back around the tree upon hearing another noise. 'Oh no!'

Three brown desert puppies are noisy barking at the Dragonfly and Chonchons, trying to scare them away. Unfortunately, it only lures the giant flies towards them. The three whimper and start to run away from them, but the flies pursue them.

Alaylle quickly gets out from her hiding place near a tree and runs after them. "Stop it! Leave those puppies alone!"

The Dragonfly and Chonchons halt and then look towards Alaylle.

"...Uh oh... now you've really gone and done it, Alaylle..." Alaylle says softly to herself as she quickly turns around and runs away from the Dragonfly and Chonchons. She runs away from them as fast as she can, but they still gain on her.

Just as they are about to make it to her, Alaylle tries to shield herself with her arms and closes her eyes... and then hears the oddest sound...

Several loud thumps and crying buzzes... and... violin music!

Alaylle opens her eyes and turns back around to see a tan Rocker swatting down the Chonchons, while dodging the charges of the Dragonfly, and playing the violin happily in between swats and dodges. "Mr. Rocker! What are you doing here?"

The tan Rocker tips it's leaf to Alaylle as it swats down the last Chonchon. It then plays a screeching note, startling the Dragonfly long enough to make it stop flying around erratically. The Dragonfly quickly joins it's Chonchon army with a few quick swats from the tan Rocker's violin. The tan Rocker happily hops over to Alaylle and plays it's violin for her.

"Thank you so much, Mr. Rocker!... But... uhh... you look really different!" Alaylle smiles happily at the tan Rocker.

The tan Rocker falls face-first onto the sand burying itself slightly, with one free arm pointing at Alaylle's basket.

"Oh?" Alaylle quickly takes out the book and flips through a few pages. "Ooh! You're not a Rocker anymore! Hmm... Metaller... a Rocker that is strong enough to survive in the desert and has developed a heat-resistant shell from old age. They often have realized how terrible their music sounds and now only play in the more isolated regions of the desert to avoid angering anyone."

The Metaller quickly gets to its feet and nods quickly.

"Aahh... I know!" Alaylle quickly gets a red ribbon from her basket and ties it onto the Metaller's head. "There! I can recognize you really easily now, Mr. Metaller! Gosh... no wonder I didn't see you at Rocker Coast... you moved to the desert!"

The Metaller turns a bit red from having a ribbon on it's head, but then nods quickly.

"Umm... this isn't the place to chat though... it's sooo hot! Do you know a place where we can get some water and some shade?" Alaylle looks up at the Metaller.

The Metaller nods and starts hopping west, playing it's violin in a travelling song.

"Yay!" Alaylle pulls out her map and follows the Metaller west.  
---  
Alaylle sits in the shade of a well-grown palm tree growing by an oasis north of Morroc. "Aahh... this grass and shade feels so good compared to the desert sun and sand!" Alaylle drinks from a refilled bottle of water and offers the other to the Metaller.

The Metaller accepts happily, gulping down the contents of the bottle and then playing it's violin again.

Alaylle puts the bottle down and takes out the map and the package. "Let's see... the package says... Oh! Near this oasis!" Alaylle puts the map away and looks up at Mr. Metaller. "Let's go! I really aren't made for this sort of hot, dry place..." She gets to her feet and follows the map's directions east.

"Are you Sister Matilda?... Yay! Here's the package from Father Renauld!" Alaylle happily gives the package to the woman. "Whew... I'm glad that's done with! This desert really doesn't agree with me!"

Sister Matilda smiles at Alaylle, "Well, in that case, I do have a spare Wing of Butterfly you can use to get back to Prontera."

"Umm... huh?" Alaylle looks back at Mr. Metaller, who is gently tapping her shoulder with his bow.

Mr. Metaller looks behind itself, in the northeastern direction and then looks back at Alaylle.

"...Oh! You want to go back home?" Mr. Metaller nods quickly. "Aahh... yeah... I guess I'd get homesick really easily too." Alaylle turns back to Sister Matilda. "Umm... if it's not too much trouble... could you make a warp portal just south of Prontera?"

Sister Matilda raises an eyebrow questionably, but then nods slowly, "I could do that." She opens up the package, takes out a blue gemstone from it and then creates a warp portal. "Hop on in"

Alaylle nods and giggles as Mr. Metaller literally hops into the Warp Portal. She can't help herself but hop into the portal the same way.

---  
Alaylle waves goodbye happily to Mr. Metaller as it hops away west, to go to Rocker Coast via Rocker Field. "Well... that was certainly different-and scary!"

---  
"Friends with... a Metaller?... How strange..." Sister Matilda thinks for a moment and begins her return letter and package to Father Renauld...

End of Chapter 8  
---  
Chapter 9 Preview!

Alaylle's father: "Dear! The city... it's under attack!"

Alaylle's mother: "Oh my... another attack?"  
"Keep Alaylle safe... please!"

In the Next Chapter: "The Beginning of a Dream..."

Alaylle's mother: "It's solely up to you what you wish to do..."  
---


	10. The Beginning of a Dream

Chapter 9: "The Beginning of a Dream…"

Alaylle hums as she places some diced crabmeat into a pot and stirs the contents of the pot with a wooden spoon. She then turns around to see a man staring at the cooking pot and trying to keep from drooling. "Father Renauld! Honestly… it's going to take about half an hour… I don't know why you keep torturing yourself by watching dinner cook!"

"Eh heh heh… sorry Alaylle… it just smells so good!" Father Renauld walks sheepishly back to the dining room to wait until dinner is done.

Alaylle shakes her head, removes the spoon from the pot, covers the pot, and balances the spoon on top of the lid. She walks quietly into the dining room and smiles happily at Father Renauld. "Well… I'm going home for the night… See you tomorrow!" She waves goodbye happily as she leaves the room.

"Ah, Good Night, Alaylle!" Father Renauld waves back and seats himself at the table. "Hmm… half an hour… how to pass that time…"

Sister Nun quietly walks into the dining room, rolling her eyes slightly at how Father Renauld is waiting for dinner. "Excuse me Father, this package just came in for you." She gently places the package on the table.

"Aahh… thank you, Sister Nun…" Father Renauld carefully opens the package and glances inside. He pulls out a letter, unfolds it and reads quietly to himself. "Hmm…"

Sister Nun quietly mutters darkly to herself about what Father Renauld called her and leaves the dining room quietly.

---  
Alaylle quietly lies down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. 'Hmm… it feels good to do absolutely nothing after cleaning and cooking all day…' she lowers her gaze from the ceiling to her mirror and slowly gazes about her room. A mirror, a few dressers, a small desk… a typical girl's room-Daddy picked it all out, of course. She looks from her room to her window, from which she can see a half-moon quite clearly. She is about to doze off when a loud, clear sound goes through the air. Alaylle hops out of bed quickly as she hears the bell ringing. "Mommy! Daddy! The attack bell is ringing!" She quickly changes out of her nightclothes and into her normal clothing and rushes out of her room.

Indeed, outside several people are laughing insanely as they lift bundles of decayed twigs over their heads and throw them at the ground. The twigs break apart from their bundles and a moan or scream is heard as the restless soul in the twig takes the form of a monster. The summoned monsters quickly begin attacking Prontera, its people, its buildings… anything that gets in their way.

---  
Alaylle and her mother and father gather quietly near the front door of their house, still inside.

Alaylle's mother shakes her head. "Oh my... Another attack on the city..."

Alaylle's father frowns for a moment as he thinks. "We really shouldn't stay here... it's not safe..."

"Dear... take care of Alaylle... I'm going to go help the wounded adventurers out there..." Alaylle's mother glances at her husband significantly.

Alaylle's father nods. "Don't worry... I'll keep her safe... we'll head to the church and see if we can help the wounded there too."

"Mommy... please be careful..." Alaylle gives her mother a warm hug.

"Oh, don't worry, dear... I will..." Alaylle's mother gently strokes her daughter's hair and she hugs back. She releases Alaylle from the hug. "Go while you can, you two..."

Alaylle's father nods and opens the door, cautiously leading Alaylle out with him. Alaylle's mother walks out cautiously, and then runs towards the fountain square.

"Alright... stay close... and stay alert, Alaylle" Alaylle's father secures his swordmace on it's sheath.

Alaylle and her father carefully walk onto the path north-west to the church. "Back, Alaylle!" Alaylle's father quickly unsheathes his swordmace and attacks an Elder Willow. Alaylle dashes behind her father while looking around nervously.

Alaylle rubs her eyes and takes another look at the monster coming towards her. "Daddy!... There's... a... Um... a Pupa moving towards us!"

Alaylle's father grumbles as he finishes off the Elder Willow with a few strikes. "Argh, I hate these things! They just keep coming!" He dashes at the moving Pupa and starts striking it with his swordmace.

Alaylle hides again behind her father while keeping watch.

Alaylle's father laughs as he smashes the Pupa. "Your old man's still got his touch, Alaylle! Let's get going while the getting's good!"

Alaylle nods as she follows her father further along the path. "Umm... Daddy... if we're being attacked so often... is Mommy gonna be okay?"

Alaylle's father leads Alaylle to the church door. "Oh, don't worry about your mother... she'll be fine!" He sheathes his swordmace and knocks loudly on the church door. "Hey! Let us in! If we were monsters, we wouldn't knock would we! I know someone's behind this door!"

"Eh heh heh... Point taken..." Father Renauld opens the door. "Aahh... Alaylle! Didn't expect you!... Come in, come in!" Father Renauld lets both of them in and locks the door once they are in. "Whew... such dangerous times... Well Alaylle, you're welcome to spend the night here... it is rather safe here... Aahh... Who might you be?" Father Renauld takes a good look at Alaylle's father.

"Ahh... thank you, Father Renauld!" Alaylle looks back and forth between her father and Father Renauld. "Umm... how did introductions go again?... Oh yeah! Daddy, this is Father Renauld... Father Renauld, this is my Daddy!"

"Heh heh heh... no need to call me 'Daddy'... Corin is fine." Alaylle's father sheepishly grins.

"Aahh, nice to meet Alaylle's father at last! She's such a fine young lady." Father Renauld smiles at Alaylle as she blushes. "And rather modest too."  
Alaylle blushes slightly deeper.

"Heh... that's good to hear... so this is where you've been going when you leave the house eh, Alaylle?" Alaylle's father smiles at his daughter.

Alaylle, still blushing rather deeply nods slowly.

"Well anyway, if there's anything we can do to help, let us know!" Alaylle's father grins and offers his hand to Father Renauld.

Father Renauld shakes Alaylle's father's hand. "Aah well... unless you know how to split one Yggdrasil Leaf for about 20 wounded people, I'm afraid all you can do is just make yourselves comfortable." Father Renauld sighs and shakes his head, "Far too many wounded, and everyone is exhausted from healing... and not enough blue gemstones around to invigorate the wounded either..."

Alaylle's father glances over at Alaylle. "I think my daughter can do something about that... May I have that leaf?"

Father Renauld inclines his head as he gives the leaf to Alaylle's father.

Alaylle's father gives the leaf to his daughter. "Here dear... can you go make some tea out of this?"

"Huh? Umm... okay!" Alaylle gently takes the leaf and runs off to the church kitchen.

"So full of energy... I brought a bunch of red potions and some rubbing bases to make salves out of them..." Alaylle's father points to the cart he's lugging around. "Though... honestly, Alaylle's better at the mixing than I am... I have a few she made a while ago still, so I'll help right now." He takes a bottle of thick pink liquid from his cart and gets to work.

Father Renauld heals those that he can, but there are simply far too many, and he starts feeling tired.

"Hey... don't overdo it! And... if your magic is quittin' on ya, do things the old fashioned way!" Alaylle's father grins and gives him a bottle of the pink healing salve. "Don't be afraid to get your hands a little dirty! It's not really dirt, anyway!" Corin laughs.

"Hmm... there is that..." Father Renauld takes the bottle with a smile and starts applying it to the wounds of the people.

Alaylle walks in, carrying a hot teapot carefully. "Umm... who do I give this tea to?"

"Hmm... anyone who's pale or unconscious, Alaylle... just pour a cup into their mouth." Corin glances at her. "Oh, and after you're done serving them all tea, come make some more salve, okay?"

Alaylle nods and gently pours cups of tea and just as gently opens the person's mouth and pours the cup into it. She repeats the process several times, and soon, the church is filled with conscious people complaining about summoned monsters.

Alaylle then starts mixing salves out of the red potions... and then starts applying them to those still injured. Alaylle sometimes pauses in the middle of her work... thinking to herself...

---  
"Aahh, it's great to be back home, safe and sound!" Corin grins broadly as he lies down on the bed in the master bedroom.

"Hmmhmmhmm... yes, home is wonderful isn't it?" Neyrilla smiles softly as she glances over at her husband.

Alaylle awkwardly walks into the room in her night clothes. "Umm... Mommy and Daddy?... I'm thinking of becoming an acolyte..."

Alaylle's mother and father glance over at Alaylle.

"Dear... if that's what you want... we'll be behind you all the way." Neyrilla smiles gently at Alaylle.

"Hmm... still... you shouldn't rush into it... it's quite a large decision! Take some time to think it over first, okay? Especially since it is rather late!" Corin grins at Alaylle. "Good Night, Alaylle!... We'll talk about it in the morning, okay?"

"Oh... alright... Good Night, Mommy and Daddy!" Alaylle walks out of the room covering her mouth to hide a yawn.

Corin inclines his head and looks over at Neyrilla. "Hmm... what do you think of that, dear?" Neyrilla looks at her husband. "Hmm... she'll do what comes to her... we'll see what it is, I guess..."

End of Chapter 9  
---  
Chapter 10 Preview!

Alaylle: "I think I've decided! But... you want me to do something first?"

Renauld: "That's right! One more thing... and everything will be set!"

In the Next Chapter: "A Treacherous Decision!"

Corin: "Don't think you're alone on this, Alaylle!"  
---


	11. A Treacherous Decision!

Chapter 10: "A Treacherous Decision!"

Alaylle quietly sweeps the road leading to Prontera Church. Lost in thought, she ends up slowly circling the Church while sweeping. '...Is being an acolyte really right for me?... Once I decide... I can't go back on my word... it just isn't done! But... helping those people... it just felt so natural to me!' Her broom hitting someone's shoe quickly interrupts her thoughts. Alaylle quickly turns towards the person and bows. "Oh! Please excuse me!"

Father Renauld chuckles and smiles at Alaylle. "No need to worry, Alaylle! I hate to interrupt your sweeping of the grounds, but something urgent has come up." He gives a package to Alaylle. "Sorry about using you as a courier service all the time, but... you're so reliable and fast when it comes to these things! This package is to Father Ruba..." Father Renauld shakes his head and clears his throat. "Pardon me... his name always twists my tongue up... Father Rubalkabara. He's currently overseeing the renovation of a Monastary north-east of Prontera."

"Umm... alright... I guess I'll go prepare then! Umm... north-east right?" Alaylle carefully holds the package in two hands as she holds the broom in the crook of her arm.

"Hmm... well, east by north-east really... Be very careful, alright?" Father Renauld smiles at Alaylle and rushes inside the church rather quickly.

After putting away the broom inside the church, Alaylle rushes home.

---  
"Hold it right there, missy! I know that basket when I see it! You're going somewhere, aren't you?" Corin holds Alaylle back by grabbing her ponytail. "Father Renauld is making you go deliver something again, isn't he?"

Alaylle nods as best as she can, since her ponytail is being held. "Father Renauld wants me to take this east by north-east to a person waiting for it at the monastery."

"Aahh, I see... that's ni-Hold it!" Corin does a double take. "East by north-east! You need to go through Mandragora Forest and Yoyo Forest! That's incredibly dangerous! That settles it, I'm coming with you! You aren't going on this trip alone!" He drags Alaylle by the ponytail as he gathers things for the trip. A swordmace with a reddish tinge is sheathed and several bottles of red potion are secured at his belt and in his satchel. "Alright... let's go then!" Alaylle's father finally lets go of Alaylle's ponytail.

---  
'Walking with Daddy somewhere... I haven't ever went with him on a trip like this!' Alaylle thinks quietly to herself as she picks her way north from Prontera's east gate. 'But... I never knew Daddy adventured too...'

"Over here, Alaylle! The entrance to Mandragora Forest... I'll lead... stay very close!" Corin keeps a close watch as the air noticeably changes.

"Gosh... what a sweet smell!" Alaylle sniffs the air as she follows her father closely.

"Hmm... that's the smell of Mandragoras... they lure animals and such to them with that smell and... well, why don't you look at your book? I think it would do a better job while I focus on leading us..." Alaylle's father continues to keep a close watch.

Alaylle pulls her book out of her basket and flips through the pages. "Umm... Mandragora... a giant pitcher plant that has developed carnivorous tastes. Using a sweet scent coming from its mouth, it lures prey into range of it's concealed roots. Once the prey is in range, it suddenly attacks using said roots like daggers and spears from the ground underneath the prey. It often then tries to wrap it's roots around the victim and then swallow it whole. Very dangerous for the ill-prepared." Alaylle looks up at her father, only to see that he isn't there. "Uhm... Daddy?... Daddy!"  
---  
Corin quietly curses to himself. 'I really shouldn't have told her to look it up in her book... And I should have been paying more attention!' He rushes a Mandragora, cutting the roots that go for his legs with his swordmace before they can get close. He then quickly cuts the Mandragora in half with a grunt. "Alaylle! Where are you!"

Corin backtracks slowly, looking for any signs of his daughter. "Alaylle! Where are you, Alaylle!" He keeps a watchful eye and ear as he carefully looks in the directions of a few routes that Alaylle could have taken.

"Daaddy... help" Alaylle's voice is barely heard, but it is all her father needs. He runs in the direction of the voice and sees six Mandragoras in a circle around Alaylle, with their vines wrapped around Alaylle.

Corin relaxes slightly as he takes a closer look... the Mandragoras seem to be fighting each other... probably fighting over his daughter. He frowns for a moment, 'Killing them one by one would make the last one attack Alaylle... there has to be a way to keep her safe!' Alaylle's father thinks for a moment and then looks at his fire swordmace and the red potions on his belt... and gets an idea.

Corin carefully uncorks a red potion bottle and whips the bottle in an arc towards the vines around his daughter. He then charges at the area, swatting at the vines with the flat edge of his swordmace.

The Mandragoras turn towards him, but then realize the their red potion soaked roots are on fire from the swordmace igniting the potion. They flail their roots about helplessly, trying to put out the fire.

Corin quickly rushes in, picks up Alaylle with one hand and quickly runs out of the Mandragora's range before they recover from the fire.

Alaylle hugs her father warmly. "Daddy!... It was so scary! Those Mandragoras... they sprouted out of the ground all of a sudden and then..."

Corin sheathes his swordmace and hugs his daughter back. "I know... I know... it's alright now..." He releases Alaylle from the hug and sets her down on her feet. He looks somewhat awkward, as if he doesn't quite know how to deal with the situation. Alaylle's father glances back towards the five Mandragoras and looks furious. "...I'll teach them a lesson they won't soon forget!" He grabs several more red potions from his belt and unsheathes his swordmace.  
---  
Alaylle walks carefully behind her father, making sure that she doesn't get separated again. "Daddy... thank you so much... without you... I'd... I don't know what would have happened..."

Alaylle's father smiles at his daughter. "Alaylle, don't forget that me and your mother love you dearly. We'd do anything that we can to help our baby. Oh, we're leaving Mandragora Forest now... and entering Yoyo Forest." He glances over at Alaylle. "By the way... we're gonna need to feed you more, Alaylle! You're so light... I think I can throw you across Prontera Castle's moat with one hand!" Corin laughs heartily.

"Daddy! You know I eat as much as you do!" Alaylle smiles up at her father.

"Gwahahah! Are you sure you aren't sneaking vegetables into your food then?" Father and daughter both laugh and giggle as they walk into Yoyo Forest proper...  
---  
Meanwhile, back at the five Mandragoras...

The Mandragoras look a little more burnt and a little less than green now. Most of their roots are little more than charred stubs now, useless for fighting. They glare at each other... well, as much as a plant can glare, anyway. Suddenly, all five snake what remains of their roots out at each other violently... uhh... tickling each other, not realizing that their roots have lost their edges and points.

Soon, a soft pitter-pattering is heard...  
The Mandragoras turn toward the sound to see a large blue bunny with a hoard of smaller white bunnies. If the Mandragoras could, they would have run away. Of course, being rooted in the ground does have it's disadvantages at times. The blue bunny and its hoard of small white bunnies suddenly rush at the Mandragoras, seemingly intent on having a slightly burnt vegetable snack.

End of Chapter 10  
---  
Chapter 11 Preview!

Alaylle: "Hmm... Yoy-What in the world!"

Corin: "Aahh... it's that time again!"

"Union rules and all..."

Alaylle: "Huh? What do you mean?"

In Omake 1: Chapter 11: "A Very Suitable Title Here!"

Corin: "Yahoo! OOC crazyness time!"

Alaylle: "...!"  
---


	12. Omake 1: The Chapter Number Says it All!

Omake 1: Chapter 11: "A Very Suitable Title Here!"

Several lights turn on in sequence, causing light to fade into the scene. The light illuminates a desk with Alaylle sitting at it.

"Hello! I'm Alaylle, one of the head researchers of Cute Laboratories LLP! We're interrupting your normal forum viewing to ask a special request of you viewers!"

Alaylle steeples her fingers. "You see, running a limited liability partnership takes money! We're strictly a non-profit organization dedicated towards bringing you the best! And currently... we're broke... bankrupt... And so, we need your pledges!"

Alaylle points towards a screen that has slid down in back of her. "Why, your pledge zeny goes towards quality programming that you see everyday! That's right! Let's take a look at some of the quality shows that your pledge money helps stay on the air!"

Alaylle turns her swivel chair in the direction of the screen. "First up, is a clip of your critically acclaimed economics watch show, 'Prontera Street'!" Scenes of massive amounts of merchants sitting around everywhere in Prontera, selling stuff... oddly the scenes scroll very slowly and rather choppily when they do scroll. "Hmm... we seem to be having technical difficulties..."

Karian peeks out from behind the camera and shakes her head while sweatdropping. "Nuh uh... this is normal footage. Blame the lag…"

Alaylle sweatdrops as she turns towards the camera. "Umm... moving on, your pledge money also goes towards the award winning science and magic show, 'LoV'." She turns towards the screen again.

A scene with Pupas gently pulsing on the ground. A monotone voice narrates, "A few stationary targets were chosen for the test of the destructive power of this new spell..." Suddenly large bolts of fire rain down and explode upon impact with the ground, burning the Pupas. Zoom out to show a picture of a wizard giving the thumbs up.

Alaylle looks back at the camera. "And of course, you can't forget a classic, 'Mister Rahl's Neighborhood'" She turns back to the screen.

A scene of a toy neighborhood that then starts to zoom in on a house. As it zooms in, fire can be seen being started on the neighbor's houses. Talien can be seen entering the house and walking over to a closet. "It's a fiery day in my neighborhood, a beautiful day for a feir! Gotta love Teh Fier!" He opens the closet and puts on a flame proof vest and takes out a flamethrower.

Alaylle sweatdrops and turns away from the screen. "Umm... okay..." She squints at the camera as she reads the teleprompter. Alaylle then looks up. "Hey, Kaori? Somehow I don't wanna see the next program... 'Baphomet and Friends' doesn't seem so promising after these!"

Kaori speaks over the intercom, "Ah... alright Alaylle... I-I guess we'll skip over that..."

Karian looks out from behind the camera, "Hey! We're broadcasting live here!"

Alaylle sweatdrops. "Umm... moving on!" The screen lifts up out of view of the camera. "So... uhh... as you can see, to keep quality programming like this, we need your support!" Alaylle points down at the bottom part of the screen, where a phone number appears. "To pledge your support, dial 1-555-ZENY-PLZ! Our operators are ready to take down your pledge!"

Alaylle looks back into the camera. "And speaking of our operators, let's take a look at them!"

Karian turns the camera over to the right, where there are rows of desks with increasing heights with phones on top of them. Manning the phones are several monsters from Ragnarok Online. Baphomet is using his scythe with an ink bottle to take down pledges, Osiris is awkwardly using a pen, Porings are busy trying to loot the phones, and many other monsters answer phones and take down pledges.

Alaylle speaks while Karian is panning across the operators, "That's right, did you know that for over three weeks, the monsters from iRO have had no jobs? Hey! No looting the phones!... Uhh... I mean, these unfortunate monsters can't make ends meet, and were forced into demeaning positions!"

Screens of Baphomet working as a janitor at Burger King, using his scythe as a broom. Another scene of a Poring being used as a garbage disposal. Ambernites showed delivering letters and packages.

"And so, we've given them temporary positions as pledge workers, and are very thankful for their hard work!"

Karian pans the camera back to Alaylle.

"So remember, your pledge goes to help support these great programs and the monsters of iRO!" Alaylle sweatdrops. "We now return you to your regularly scheduled forum viewing!"

"And we're off!" Karian shuts off the camera and goes over to Alaylle. "Yeeeesh... I was wondering when that would be over!" Kaori joins Alaylle and Karian, sighing softly.

"...Karian, Kaori... we really need to talk with our agent about appearances like these..." Alaylle, Karian, and Kaori all sweatdrop, and nod slowly.

End of Omake 1: Chapter 11  
---  
Chapter 12 Preview!

Alaylle: "Umm... is it really safe around here?"

Alaylle's father: "Not completely... but lets get this done quickly!"

In the Next Chapter: "Alaylle's Decision"

Alaylle: "Hmm..."  
---

Yup... a pledge drive...  
And like all pledge drives... they pop in when you least want them to!  
Hee hee hee... oh well, enough of that strangeness... back to the story!


	13. Alaylle's Decision

Chapter 12: Alaylle's Decision

"Eh heh heh... This should be pretty easy now! Just stay in there, okay Alaylle?" Corin chuckles as he pulls his pushcart through Yoyo Forest.

Alaylle quietly sits in her father's pushcart as he tugs her along. She looks around the forest and has her book open on her lap. "Hmm... Yoyos... and Poporings... what a strange forest! Daddy, are you sure it's safe here?"

"Well... I haven't been here in a long time, Alaylle... so I'm not sure if it's safe here like it was before." Corin looks around cautiously as he works his way east, following a forest path. "Hmm... let's get this done quickly, so we don't find out... what do you say?"

"That's a good idea!" Alaylle smiles happily at her father. She then looks down at the things that are riding along with her in her father's cart. "Daddy... your cart is a mess!"

"Heh heh heh... so you say... but I can find anything I need in half a heartbeat! Ahh, we're here. Yoyo Forest Monestary!" Corin gently picks Alaylle up off the cart and places her on her feet. "Your Majesty" He grins and bows.

"Daddy!" Alaylle giggles and tickles her father.

"Bwhahahaha!" Corin manages to squirm out of his daughter's tickles. "Aahh... the fresh air out here is great! Much cleaner than Prontera!... I'll be right here... go conduct your business with Father Tongue-Twister."

"Daddy, his name is Father Rubellkebira..." Alaylle takes out the package and reads it. "Oopsy! I meant Rubalkabara!"

"Heh heh heh... go on now... don't want to spend the night in this forest, right?" Alaylle's father glances around Yoyo Forest.

"Umm... right! Be right back, Daddy!"

Alaylle runs over to the monastery's gate to see a man in minister's robes glancing up at the monastery itself. Her gaze then travels from the man to the massive ivy-covered stone monastery. "Gosh..."

"Hmm... rather intimidating isn't it? It's more comfortable living here than you'd think it is, though." The man turns around and smiles. "Hello there... I'm Father Rubalkabara... do you happen to have-"

"Oh yes! I have a package for you!" Alaylle quickly gives the package to Father Rubalkabara.

"Ahh... excellent! Preparing the monastery for training Monks is far more difficult than we thought it would be... this will help out tremendously! You... you're Alaylle, correct?" Father Rubalkabara takes a closer look at Alaylle. "Hmm... you look much different than what I'd picture you to look like... Aahh, Father Renauld has written quite a lot about you."

"H-he has?" Alaylle blushes and looks away slightly.

"Yes... by the way... have you thought of becoming an Acolyte of the Parish?" Father Rubalkabara glances significantly at Alaylle.

"Umm... actually... recently, yes I have..." Alaylle glances up at the father.

"Well, I'm sure they will accept you." He smiles softly and looks up at the sky. "Ahh, the time... you should start heading back or you won't make it back before nightfall."

"Oh, right! Bye bye Father Rubalkabara!" Alaylle waves goodbye happily and runs off to meet her father.

Father Rubalkabara quietly walks through the monastery gates and shuts them behind him. He walks over to the cages for the homing pigeons and takes out a few strips of paper, quickly scribbling a few notes. He tucks the messages into the foot cylinders of three pigeons and sends them off.

---  
Alaylle runs from the monastery's gate and in her father's direction, only to suddenly stop. She turns and looks in the direction of a strangely large and darker colored Yoyo.

The Yoyo snarls at Alaylle... and then suddenly charges at her.

"Kyaaaaa! Daddy! Help!" Alaylle quickly starts running in the direction of her father.

---  
Corin quietly shoos the Poporings from his cart. "Away, away you green Porings..." He startles when he hears his daughter's voice and turns in Alaylle's direction. He quickly spots Alaylle running away from a large, brown Yoyo. 'The Choco!... I won't make it to her in time, unless...' He quickly grabs a Mystic Frozen from his cart and takes the hammer from his belt. He dashes towards the Choco and slips the blue spiky crystal into a notch in the hammer. Alaylle's father swings the hammer at the Choco just before it reaches Alaylle.

The Choco flys through the air and lands in a glowing blue circle with runes and symbols drawn into the ground.

"Heh... Torrent Hammer!" Corin swings the hammer up and a large geyser of water blasts up from the circle and into the sky, taking the Choco with it. He then grins and swings the hammer down at the ground. "Fall!" The water freezes slightly as it arcs downwards towards the ground, smashing the Choco against the ground with water, ice, and frost. The water gently rushes against Alaylle and her father's feet.

"D-daddy..." Alaylle looks both frightened and relieved.

Corin holds the pose for a little while longer and then secures the hammer at his belt again... the Mystic Frozen is gone. "Heh heh heh... your old man's still got the moves that made him famous! Bwhahahaha!"

Alaylle blinks her eyes for a moment. She then giggles and starts tickling her father. "Daaaddy! You're such a goof ball!"

"Hey hey!" Alaylle's father dodges his daughter's tickles. "Hey, let your old man gloat! It's been so long since I did that... brings back great old memories!" He quickly looks at the sky. "Whoo boy... Alaylle get in the cart, we gotta get back soon, or your mother is going to kill us-I mean cook for us."

Alaylle giggles and gets in her father's cart, carefully sitting down in it.

"Hold on! Gotta make up for lost time!" Corin grips the cart and then speeds off towards Prontera.

---  
Alaylle quietly walks on the path towards Prontera Parish. She glances up at the morning sky. 'Hmm... got a few minutes before he's expecting me to arrive...' She quietly continues on the path. "Father Renauld...? I was wondering if I could become an acolyte?... Hmm... That's kinda direc-"

Father Renauld suddenly jumps out from behind a tree, dropping a broom and grasping Alaylle's shoulders. "Yahooooo! You do!"

"Kyaaaaaaaaaa!" Alaylle tries to jump, but of course Father Renauld keeps her on the ground. "Father Renauld! Don't do that!" She catches her breath from screaming.

"Heh... sorry about that, Alaylle... but... fantastic! Come, come! Let's head to the church right away and make it official!" Father Renauld quickly leads Alaylle to the Prontera Parish.

---  
Father Renauld leads Alaylle into a side room of the church. Sister Nun quietly follows, carrying a few things.

"Aahh... now, first of all... oh... wait... your clothing is actually okay!" Father Renauld laughs nervously. "Usually we have to give new acolytes some new clothing because, well... you won't believe what some of them wear as they come in!" He holds up a finger. "But! It wouldn't be quite fair to not give you anything... not after all the hard work you've done here!" He ahems softly.

Sister Nun rolls her eyes at Father Renauld but smiles at Alaylle. "Here, Alaylle... this cloth is normally dyed green, but... well... you should make some clothing out of it." She hands the roll of cloth to Alaylle.

"Hmm... I probably don't need to tell you about the role of an acolyte... you pretty much had that down even before you came here..." Father Renauld thinks for a moment. "Ahh, that's right... you should take this along." He glances over at Sister Nun and ahems again.

Sister Nun shakes her head slightly and then gives Alaylle a long chain. "Dearie, keep this with you... I know you don't seem to be the type to fight, but... it's good to have just in case..."

Alaylle quietly accepts the two things. "I... I'll do my best!" She bows and leaves the room.

Sister Nun glances at Father Renauld. "Are you sure it's alright to make her an acolyte?... She doesn't seem to have any magical ability or is even noticed by the light..."

"Hmm... don't worry about it... I'm sure the light will notice her one day..." Father Renauld holds his rosary for a moment and then glances up.

Sister Nun quickly whaps him on the head. "Quit trying to act all mysterious! And for crying out loud, I'm not your servant!" She continues slapping Father Renauld on the head.

"Oww, oww, owwww!" Father Renauld winces. "Hey couldn't you let me have my moment there?... Honestly Sister Nun... uh oh... I shouldn't have said that..."

Sister Nun rages at Father Renauld. "I have a proper name you know!" She starts throwing chains, maces and birettas at Father Renauld.

"Ouch, oww, yipe!"

End of Chapter 12  
---  
Chapter 13 Preview!

Alaylle: "I'm an acolyte! It's so exciting!"

Alaylle: "But you know... I wonder how Mr. Metaller is doing..."

In the Next Chapter: "The Coast is NOT Clear!"

Alaylle: "Oh no!"  
---


	14. The Coast is NOT Clear!

Chapter 13: "The Coast is NOT Clear!"

Alaylle hums as she finishes sewing the fabric. She cuts the thread from her needle and carefully ties the end in a knot. "Perfect! Now to try it on!"

Alaylle quickly changes into the clothing, which looks identical to her old clothing. "Whaaa... this cloth feels so wonderful! It feels so smooth and soft! I should use more of that bolt and remake my wardrobe!" She quietly walks out of her room and into the living room of her house. Her father is sitting comfortably on a chair, with his cart by his chair.

"Hmm... it looks good on you, Alaylle!" Corin smiles happily at his daughter. "But you know... that cloth you have ain't normal cloth, you know! I recognized it the moment you came in!" He quickly pulls out a two by four out of his cart and swings it at Alaylle.

Alaylle has no time to scream as the wood hits her hakama and breaks... without any pain. She looks over at her father, seeming confused and shocked. "Huh?" Alaylle inquires intelligently.

"Bwhahahaha! Oh, that look... Alaylle, your reaction was priceless!" Corin laughs as he drops the two by four. He manages to control his levity once he notices the confused look on Alaylle's face. "I dunno how Father Renauld got that stuff, but it's steel curtain thread with silk woven in! Very resistant to pounding, cutting, stabbing... you name it." He glances significantly at the cloth. "It's blessed too... it's high-quality premium, dreadfully expensive stuff! To have normal clothing that covers your entire body like that... I could hit you with this all day and you wouldn't feel a thing!" He lifts up the two by four. "But... I have a job to go to." He chuckles as he waggles his pointer finger. "Your mother left already... She seems busier than usual ever since you became an acolyte... I wonder... Yikes! I gotta get going!" Corin quickly picks up the two by four, stashes it in his cart and runs out the door. "Love-you-hun, see-you-later!"

Alaylle blinks her eyes once as her father leaves the house quickly, and then looks down at her clothes. "Gosh..." Her gaze quickly moves to the floor, which has wood splinters on it. "Daddy... silly goofball head..." She quietly goes to get a broom to clean up the splinters.

---  
"Heh heh heh... yes yes... oh no, it wasn't my doing! It was more of a combined effort from the countless people you've delivered packages to, Alaylle." Father Renauld smiles gently at Alaylle. "Oh, believe me... you've earned it! No need to repay me at all!"

"Well, okay Father Renauld... I know! I'll keep helping out around here!" Alaylle smiles happily at Father Renauld.

"No no no... you should go out there, experience the world!" Father Renauld gestures dramatically, and then notices how Alaylle isn't buying it. "Alright, alright... a compromise... you may come here whenever you have free time and help out... alright?" He glances at Alaylle. "Usually we simply turn the Acolytes loose to find their own path. And... the cleaning and such is usually a test to see how determined they are." He mutters, "Never met someone who actually wanted to do it before..."

"Yay! How about now?" Alaylle smiles happily.

"No no no! You should be outside!" Father Renauld quickly ushers Alaylle out the door. He chuckles lightly and shakes his head once Alaylle is outside. "That girl..."

---  
Alaylle hums as she walks west from Prontera's west gate. 'Well... as long as I'm forced to be outside... I might as well visit Mr. Metaller and see how he's doing.' She watches the ground as walks, and carefully looking at each Poring she comes across, looking for one with a bandage on it's head. 'No... no... no... I wonder where Mr. Poring went...' She quietly enters Rocker Coast, only to be greeted by a horrifying racket.

"Kyaaaaahh! So noisy!" Alaylle covers her ears and looks over at the source of the noise.

A large group of Rockers is huddled in a circle; the outer Rockers are playing their violins horribly, while the inner Rockers are pounding on something. Meanwhile, a Rocker holding a blue leaf is watching the group, seeming satisfied and laughing in loud chirps. It has a large group of Rockers behind it, who are also chirping in laughter.

Alaylle looks carefully at the group of Rockers, and notices a tan leaf sticking out of the hoodlum's group in the middle. "Oh no! Mr. Metaller!"

At the sound of her voice, Mr. Metaller shoves his way through the circle. The Rockers quickly reorient themselves to chase after him. Mr. Metaller seems to have been disarmed of his violin, and is desperately dodging the Rockers strikes.

"So that's how it is!" Alaylle quickly grabs her chain and whips the metal links at a Rocker that is chasing Mr. Metaller.

The struck Rocker quickly turns towards Alaylle and strikes back... only to find it's violin strikes aren't doing anything.

Alaylle quickly continues striking the Rocker until it drops it's violin, a jellopy, and runs away in fear. Alaylle picks up the violin and throws it to Mr. Metaller. "Mr. Metaller! Here!"

Mr. Metaller neatly catches the violin and glares back at the Rockers. The Rockers back off for a moment, but then charge back into the fight. Mr. Metaller quickly sends several fleeing without their violins and knocks several more Rockers out.

Alaylle continues striking any Rockers that Mr. Metaller misses with her chain. Many quickly run away after taking a few chain strikes.

The Rocker with the blue leaf chirps quickly and points at Alaylle and Mr. Metaller. It's gang of Rockers quickly jump towards the pointed at targets.

Alaylle and Mr. Metaller make short work of them, either knocking them out or sending them fleeing. A large pile of jellopies and violins seems to have collected by them.

Mr. Metaller turns towards the Rocker with the blue leaf once the last Rocker flees.

The Rocker with the blue leaf shakes it's arm at Mr. Metaller, does a snarling chirp and jumps into the water of the coast, swimming away.

Mr. Metaller quickly hugs Alaylle once the Rocker is out of sight.

Alaylle giggles and hugs Mr. Metaller back. "It's nice to see you again, Mr. Metaller! ...What was that all about?" She glances towards the water.

Mr. Metaller quickly makes a gesture with his hands indicating flipping pages.

"Oh!... My book!" Alaylle sits down, takes the book out of a pouch and opens it.

Mr. Metaller quickly flips the pages until he stops at an entry and points at it.

Alaylle looks at the indicated entry. "Umm... Vocal... The self-proclaimed ruler of Rockers, yet maintains its rule with terror and gang tactics. It seems to be more of a title than an actual variant of a Rocker, yet only very strong Rockers ever become Vocals. There is usually only one Vocal at a time, though reports say that sometimes there are two. When this occurs, the two factions often fight until there is only one Vocal. The current Vocal of Rocker Field is one that carries a blue leaf. It is recently attempting to expand it's influence to Rocker Coast, but has run into resistance there." Alaylle looks up at Mr. Metaller. "Aahh... so that's a Vocal, huh?"

Mr. Metaller nods quickly as it collects the dropped jellopies.

"That's... money you Rockers use, huh?" Alaylle watches Mr. Metaller collect the large amount of jellopies. Mr. Metaller nods again. Alaylle looks back at the book. "Say... is it just me or is this book talking about us?" Mr. Metaller hops over to Alaylle and reads over her shoulder.

Alaylle reads from the bottom of the page. "The Vocal has recently been pushed back to Rocker Field, after having confronted a Metaller and a unknown human." Alaylle looks up at Mr. Metaller. "I guess this book's kinda magical, huh?"

Mr. Metaller shrugs and nods.

"Uhmm... anyway..." Alaylle puts away her book. "You don't have a tuned violin anymore..." She looks back at the pile of violins. "Say... with this many... how about I teach you how to tune a violin?"

Mr. Metaller sits down next to Alaylle and nods quickly.

Alaylle giggles and starts teaching Mr. Metaller about the tuning knobs and the sounds each string should make.

---  
Several broken violins later...

"Perfect! You've learned how to do it wonderfully!" Alaylle smiles happily at Mr. Metaller.

Mr. Metaller hops to his feet and plays his violin happily.

"Aahh! It's getting late! I'd better head back to Prontera!" Alaylle gets to her feet. "See you later, Mr. Metaller!" She waves goodbye happily and runs off east.

Mr. Metaller waves goodbye back. He looks towards the pile of violins... trying to figure out what to do with them.

Some Rockers from before hesitantly approach him, glancing at the violins.

Mr. Metaller watches them warily, but then notices them not attacking him. He thinks for a moment, and then starts tuning violins and giving them to the Rockers. Once the last Rocker gets a violin, he taps his foot on the ground to set a beat. Mr. Metaller and all of the Rockers start playing, making wonderful music.

The Vocal of the tan leaf was created...

End of Chapter 13  
---  
Chapter 14 Preview!

Alaylle: "This can't be good..."

Mr. Vocal plays a charging theme on his violin.

Alaylle: "This music..."

In the Next Chapter: "The West-Side of Prontera Field Story!"

Alaylle: "N-no!... Th... they're really fighting!"  
---


	15. The West Side of Prontera Field Story!

Chapter 14: "The West-Side of Prontera Field Story!"

Just another normal day at Alaylle's house...

Alaylle is quietly cleaning the kitchen, and is currently in the process of drying off the dishes from breakfast. Neyrilla is away from home doing her usual flower arrangements at work. And... well... Corin is doing what he does best-

BOOOOOOOOM!

A deafening explosion comes from the back of Alaylle's house, gently shaking the walls of the house.

Alaylle blinks her eyes at the sudden sound, managing not to drop the plate she was drying. She shakes her head slightly with her eyes closed. "Daddy... really... it's only been an hour since breakfast and you already blew yourself up?" Alaylle giggles softly and puts away the dried plate. Carrying the slightly moist towel with her in the crook of her arm, Alaylle quietly walks towards the back of the house where Corin's workshop is.

Alaylle walks up to the door leading to her father's workshop and smirks slightly as she knocks. A slightly moaning, quite whimpering, "Come in..." answers her knock. Managing to stifle a giggle, Alaylle opens the door to her father's workshop.

Normally a spotless laboratory/forge sporting the latest in technology, as well as some of his own inventions, Corin's workshop is usually the birthplace of many fantastic inventions. Some elemental converters lay on the east side of the room, and a few dismantled steam engines dot the west side of the room. A large chest equipped with the latest magical and manual tools is stored in the middle of the room and a large desk with copious notes occupies the north side of the room. Needless to say, a lot of work gets done here. From the simple ice cream maker to the amazing programmable climate control elemental stone system for residential use, Corin is usually far ahead of his time in technological advances. Unfortunately, he is as skilled in blowing himself up as he is in inventing things. And so we enter the workshop after an explosion... now sporting a black soot splash spot in the middle of the room with black soot spotting the equipment, and a very stunned Corin (who is also covered in black soot).

Alaylle walks over to her father, as if seeing her father covered in black soot is a familiar sight. She smiles softly and uses the moist towel to help clean her father. As she wipes the soot off her father, she quietly asks, "Daddy, what went wrong this time?"

Corin slowly shakes his head. He exhales a puff of black smoke as he squeaks out, "...Used a bit too much gunpowder... and then crossed the wrong wires..."

Alaylle giggles and helps her father to his feet. "Come on... I got the bath and some clean clothes ready, so you can wash all that soot off and look human again." She smirks and leads her father to the door.

"Aaahh... you're so good to your father, Alaylle!" Corin has tears in his eyes as he inches his way out the door towards the bath, taking small, slightly stiff steps.

Alaylle looks back at the soot spot in the middle of the room and starts working on cleaning it up...

---  
Corin happily walks back to his workshop after a nice long, warm bath, looking like himself, and feeling full of energy. He opens up the door to find the room clean, and his daughter sitting on her knees, tinkering with the round spherical device he was working on. Alaylle is so focused on the ball, she doesn't even notice her father walking over to her and sitting down next to her. He quietly comments, "Hmm... not bad... but I think you're wasting water energy by connecting it too closely to the wind channel."

"Huh? Oh! That's true!" Alaylle quickly turns towards her father. She smiles happily and takes a look at him. "All fresh and clean again! Here, you finish it!" Alaylle gives the ball and a tool that looks like a dentist's tooth scraper to her father. She slowly gets to her feet and walks over to the door, turning back once she makes it there.

Corin grins at his daughter. "Why don't you go outside and play? You've done more than enough for today!"

Alaylle runs up to her father and hugs him warmly. "Yay! Thank you Daddy!" She quickly skips away happily out of the room.

Corin smiles warmly at Alaylle as she skips off. He then returns his attention to the ball and makes a small scrape with the tool. The inscribed lines then gently glow blue and gray. "Heh... what do ya know?" He gently tosses the ball up and catches it.

---  
Alaylle quietly walks around in Rocker Coast, looking for a certain friendly Metaller. Upon hearing some violin music, she quickly runs in the direction of the music. Upon finding the source of the music she is greeted by the sight of not just the tan Rocker she sought, but also a group of normal Rockers. "Eh heh heh... Mr. Vocal! I found you and your friends!"

Mr. Vocal turns towards Alaylle, bows and salutes her with his tan leaf.

Alaylle smiles happily and sits down carefully on her knees. The Rockers quickly form a semi-circle in front of her and start playing music for her. "Whaaa! This is wonderful!"

---  
A somewhat sour note sounds from one of the Rockers playing. The rest of the Rockers stop playing and look at the Rocker that made the mistake.

"Eep... that's the fourth time that happened..." Alaylle gets to her feet slowly and walks over to the Rocker. "Aww... don't feel bad! But you know... you look like something's troubling you... am I right?" Alaylle looks with kind eyes to the Rocker.

The Rocker starts chittering and doesn't stop for about 5 minutes. By the time the chittering ends, the surrounding Rockers and Mr. Vocal are all either sniffling or crying.

Alaylle blinks confusingly. "Uhh... am I missing something?" She looks up to Mr. Vocal.

Mr. Vocal thinks for a moment and calls all the Rockers together in a huddle. The huddle quickly breaks with the Rockers in a circle around a pair of Rockers. The surrounding Rockers play romantic music on their violins. Meanwhile, Mr. Vocal has switched his tan leaf with a bluish leaf and then suddenly jumps into the circle. The music changes to a sad piece as Mr. Vocal kicks one of the Rockers out of the circle. The remaining Rocker gets all teary eyed. They all quickly turn to Alaylle after the performance ends.

Alaylle blinks her eyes. Then her expression brightens. "I get it! The Vocal from Prontera Field stole some songs and instruments from you all! That's why the music and sour notes are coming out!"

All of the Rockers, including Mr. Vocal, fall face-forward onto the ground.

"No? Hmm... Then... Oohh! The Vocal must've separated the two Rockers who were boyfriend and girlfriend!" Alaylle smiles happily.

Mr. Vocal quickly gets up and nods his head with a bit of a "that's close enough" gesture. He skitters and plays a battle song on his violin. All of the Rockers quickly form a circle with Mr. Vocal in the middle as they begin planning.

"Hey! I'll help too!" Alaylle joins in the circle as they plan, even though she doesn't understand a single chirp or skitter.

---  
Alaylle quickly follows the group of Rockers and Mr. Vocal as they nervously dart from patches of trees just west of Prontera.

Alaylle quietly whispers to Mr. Vocal. "Why are we hiding near the trees?"

Mr. Vocal waits till a swordsman passes by their hiding place and points.

"Oohh... they'd fight you... that's right..." Alaylle nods slowly. "Umm... why am I hiding?"

Mr. Vocal blinks his eyes for a moment, and then shrugs.

Alaylle quietly leaves the patch of trees and walks over to another patch. She looks around carefully, then gestures to Mr. Vocal to go. Mr. Vocal and the other Rockers quickly hop over to the indicated patch and hide. In this manner, they slowly reach Prontera Field without incident.

---  
Upon entering Prontera Field, Mr. Vocal and his Rockers initiate their plan. Using information gotten from the expelled Rocker, they quietly hide and ready themselves to ambush the Vocal. Soon enough, the Vocal and a small group of Rockers carrying blue leaves arrive. The Rockers quickly jump out from the trees at the blue leafed Rockers and start fighting. Mr. Vocal plays triumphantly as he jumps out after his troops.

Alaylle runs out from the trees and helps the Rockers. She whips the links of her chain at a Rocker, but hits her own arm instead. "Owwiiee!" Mr. Vocal looks in Alaylle's direction and sweatdrops. "Sorry! I'm not so good at this yet..." Mr. Vocal quickly jumps over to Alaylle and hits a Rocker away from Alaylle before it has a chance to hit her.

The battle seems to be going well for Mr. Vocal's side, well, except for when Alaylle hits herself with her own chain. Two leg hits, one more arm hit, and one wrapping herself in her own chain. "Sorry! I guess I really don't know what I'm doing..." Mr. Vocal pats Alaylle on the back as he unwinds her from her own chain. Then quickly jumps back into battle.

Soon, the blue leafed Vocal is the only one left of his group. He grins and skitters sinisterly. One of the Rockers from Mr. Vocal's group quickly takes a violin swipe at Mr. Vocal. It's the very Rocker that was expelled from Prontera Field. Mr. Vocal quickly dodges, but then looks very confused. The Vocal grins and then chitters loudly.  
Suddenly a large wave of blue leafed Rockers surrounds the area in a large circle. The Rocker that attacked Mr. Vocal throws away it's tan leaf and picks up a blue leaf, quickly joining the shrinking circle of Rockers.

Mr. Vocal, his Rockers, and Alaylle stand closely together as the rapidly shrinking circle approaches them. Mr. Vocal shakes his head and skitters softly to himself.

"This was a trap, wasn't it?" Alaylle watches the Rockers slowly come closer and closer to the group. Mr. Vocal nods slowly and gulps.

End of Chapter 14  
---  
Chapter 15 Preview!

Alaylle: "N-no! What are we gonna do, Mr. Vocal?"

Mr. Vocal can only shrug.

Alaylle: "But... what is this familiar sound... and why is it getting louder?"

In the Next Chapter: "Mastering the Music!"

Alaylle: "Whaaa... is this where all the instruments you play come from?"  
---


	16. Mastering the Music!

Chapter 15: "Mastering the Music!"

"Eyaaaahh! What are we gonna do! Mr. Vocal, think of something!" Alaylle glances desperately at Mr. Vocal.

Mr. Vocal thinks for a moment and then starts hopping around his group of Rockers frantically. The Rockers all shake their heads and sweatdrop at their leader's actions.

"Noooo! Mr. Vocal, panicking isn't a plan!"

Mr. Vocal stops hopping around frantically and shrugs in an "I tried" gesture.

Alaylle sighs to herself, "I guess it's up to me… Lemme think…"

As Alaylle tries to come up with some sort of plan, a peculiar repetitive rumbling sound starts and seems to becoming louder.

"…I can't think with this… noise?" Alaylle blinks her eyes. "You know… this sound kinda feels familiar somehow!" She looks in the direction of the rumbling.

The Rockers surrounding Mr. Vocal's group have also noticed the sound, and have stopped their advance. Everyone, even the blue leafed Vocal have turned in the direction of the sound, seeming uncertain what it's coming from.

The rumbling soon turns into a loud bouncing "bloop" sound followed by much quieter "bloop" sounds. A huge mass of pink, yellow, and green suddenly jumps out from a nearby grove of trees and into the clearing where the Rockers and Alaylle are. Once they're in the open it's quite clear what they are: a Mastering and it's loyal following of Porings, Drops, and Poporings!

Alaylle jumps up and down trying to get a better view of the group of the Mastering and it's friends. "Gosh! That's a huuuuuuuuge Poring! And it has cute multi-colored Porings with it too!"

The Mastering quickly towards the sound of Alaylle's voice and then glances darkly at the Rockers surrounding Alaylle. The Mastering whistles loudly and opens its mouth. All of the Porings, Drops, and Poporings quickly jump into the Mastering's mouth. The Mastering closes its mouth and charges at the Rocker circle in a large mass of multi-layered Poring. An explosion of Porings, Drops, and Poporings spread out upon the Mastering connecting with the Rocker circle. Several Rockers are knocked out; some run, and some run after getting their violins snatched away by the Porings, Drops, and Poporings. The Rocker circle around Mr. Vocal and Alaylle's group has quickly turned into a half circle.

Alaylle quickly shouts out, "This way! Towards the Porings before they recover!" and runs up to the large Poring. Alaylle take a careful look at the Mastering and her eyes widen upon seeing a little "X" bandage on top of its head. "Mr. Poring! It's you!"

The Mastering nods and smiles at Alaylle.

"Gosh… What did you eat? You got so big!" Alaylle gestures with her hands.

Mr. Mastering sweatdrops and nods. He then startles at the number of Rockers being lead by Mr. Vocal and gets ready to attack.

"No no no!" Alaylle quickly gets in the way of Mr. Mastering. "This Vocal is my friend! And these are his friends! The mean ones are over there with the blue leaves!" She quickly points in the direction of the Vocal and Rockers carrying blue leaves. Several Rockers sweatdrop and run away upon Alaylle pointing her finger at them. Alaylle quietly pushes Mr. Vocal over to Mr. Mastering. "Mr. Mastering, meet Mr. Vocal! Mr. Vocal, meet Mr. Mastering!"

Both nod at each other, then look at Alaylle for a moment, and then focus rather dark glances at the blue leafed Vocal. The recipient of these glances blanches somewhat, but then points his violin at them. Both sides charge at each other once more, with the battle seeming to be turning in the favor of Alaylle's side.

Alaylle swipes her chain at the legs of a Rocker knocking it off its feet. She also ends up hitting her own legs with the chain and trips herself as well. Alaylle winces as she lands on her bottom. "I'm getting the hang of it slowly!… Okay… really slowly!"

Mr. Vocal keeps close to Alaylle, frequently bashing away attacks and attackers with his violin. Mr. Mastering bashes at several Rockers, but doesn't seem to be doing much damage. He whistles again and opens his mouth, filling it with Porings, Drops, and Poporings. He closes one eye and then starts spitting the swallowed helpers out of his mouth at the Rockers. They quickly snatch the Rocker's violins away as they connect or zoom by. Soon the only one left standing is the Vocal holding a blue leaf.

He glares and quickly hops away, with Alaylle, Mr. Vocal, Mr. Mastering, and their friends chasing after him.

---  
Alaylle looks up at the building that the blue leafed Vocal has led them all to. "What is this place?"

A small house made up of irregularly shaped rocks mortared together stands at the top of a hill. The walls of the house are covered in moss and vines, and several of the glass windows seem to have been broken. What makes the building remarkable is that little stone musical notes edge the roof of the house.

Alaylle and company have no time to examine the house, though, as the blue leafed Vocal suddenly bursts out of one of the windows of the house carrying what looks like a violin made out of metal. He growls loudly and charges at Mr. Vocal. Mr. Vocal gestures his troops to hold off and he charges at the blue leafed Vocal as well. Mr. Vocal tries bashing his opponent, but he simply blocks with his metal violin. The metal violin proves to be a deadly weapon as Mr. Vocal is forced to get his own violin out of the way of it's strikes, lest it be shattered, and takes several hits.

Alaylle watches Mr. Vocal get more and more tired and she shakes her head. She glances down at her chain and then at the Vocal. "No! You meanie! I won't let you hurt Mr. Vocal!" She charges at the blue leafed Vocal and strikes out quickly with her chain with a slight spin to her strike. "Steel Twirl!" Alaylle's strike hits the Vocal right in the back of his neck. The Vocal stumbles from the hit to a rather weak spot in its body.

Mr. Vocal quickly regains his wits and jumps closely to the other Vocal. He quickly adjusts the knobs at the end of his violin and then plays a sudden screeching note in front of him. The Vocal winces at the sound, and Mr. Vocal takes advantage of the distraction and bashes the other Vocal so hard that the metal violin flies out of his hand. Mr. Vocal quickly holds the Vocal at violin-point.

The Vocal shakes his head quickly, and runs off, abandoning the special leaf that marks his leadership. Mr. Vocal picks up the leaf, glances it over, then shakes his head and tosses it to Mr. Mastering, who promptly gulps it down.

Meanwhile, Alaylle has walked over to the door of the house and opened it a bit, and is looking inside. "Gosh! Everyone! Come look inside!" Inside of the small house, there are large amount of racks on the walls and rows of stands, many of them filled with violins and bows. "…Is this where all the violins the Rockers use come from?" She continues looking around the room as the others come in and look as well.

Mr. Mastering whistles sharply and looks over at Alaylle. Alaylle quickly turns towards Mr. Mastering. "Did you find something?" She walks quickly over to where the large Poring is.

Next to Mr. Mastering, a metal stand on top of a metal pedestal with a small inscription on its base stands. Mr. Vocal brings the metal violin that the Vocal dropped and places it onto the stand on the pedestal. It seems to have clearly been part of the display.

Alaylle looks closely at the inscription on the pedestal. "Hmm… 'To the grasshoppers that have kept me company and inspired me all these years with their chirping music, I leave these instruments to create their own music with what they have given me.' Gosh! This must be where all the Rocker violins come from!"

---  
Alaylle walks into Prontera Field, glancing around happily at the grass and the trees. Suddenly a bunch of Rockers jumps toward her, but then a familiar tan Vocal jumps over to her as well. "Hee hee hee… getting used to your new home, Mr. Vocal?"

Mr. Vocal nods as he tunes his instrument. He then quickly taps the wooden part of his bow against his violin to set a beat. Mr. Vocal and his Rockers start playing a song on their violins while Alaylle quietly sits on her knees and listens. Mr. Mastering and his friends quickly arrive at the sound of violin music and start bouncing to the song played.

Alaylle giggles as she is treated to the somewhat strange little concert of Rocker violins and Poring bounces.

End of Chapter 15  
---  
Chapter 16 Preview!

Alaylle: "I'm gonna go visit my friend Karian!"

Karian: "Kyahahaha… at this rate, she'll…"

Alaylle: "What was that Karian?"

Karian: "Uhh… nothing!"

Alaylle: "You're up to something! I know it!"

In the Next Chapter: "Finding Diamonds in the Desert!"

Karian: "It's not that hard… really!"  
---


	17. Finding Diamonds in the Desert!

Chapter 16: "Finding Diamonds in the Desert!"

"It's no good… I keep trying, but nothing happens…" Alaylle sighs as she sits down with a whump on one of the benches leading up to the altar. She glances down at the ground sadly.

Father Renauld rests his palm on Alaylle's shoulder. "It's alright Alaylle, I'm sure one day the light will listen to you!" He glances at the paper cut on his right pointer finger and puts the injured finger into his mouth. He mumbles quietly, "Then the adventurers out there will be pestering you from dawn until dusk for healing…" He takes the finger out of his mouth and glances at the paper cut. "Why not try again?"

Alaylle looks up slowly and gets to her feet just as sluggishly. "I'll try again…" She folds her hands together like the other acolytes do and tries concentrating on healing the paper cut. "Heal!" Alaylle looks at the paper cut and sighs. "Nothing…"

Father Renauld sticks the finger back into his mouth and mutters quietly to himself, "She should be able to heal even something this minor by now…"

Alaylle looks up at Father Renauld. "Did you say something Father Renauld?"

Father Renauld takes the finger out of his mouth. "Alaylle, don't worry about the paper cut… Why don't you go home and rest your head for a while? Things will be okay here."

Alaylle nods and quietly walks down the aisle and out of the church.

Father Renauld watches Alaylle walk out of the church and looks back at the paper cut. "Nah… I won't heal it… it's a good reminder to take care of the books… and of how Alaylle is feeling…"

---  
"Aww, why so glum, chum?" Corin gently taps the bow in Alaylle's hair with his spanner. "Cheer up!" He smiles cheerfully at his sad daughter.

Alaylle's gaze is downcast, and she sighs quietly once in a while.

"Hey, great impression of Kaori!" Corin grins at his daughter, but then notices how his attempts at cheering her up aren't working. He quickly sneaks behind her and starts tickling her sides. "Come on! This glum attitude doesn't suit you!"

Alaylle bursts into giggles upon being tickled and tries to squirm out of his tickles. "Daddy, that's not fair!"

"Bwahahahah! Gotcha! I saw a smile!" Corin grins triumphantly, but then has to quickly dodge Alaylle's tickling fingers. The two quickly get into a tickle fight.

---  
Alaylle gasps for breath and sits down on her knees.

Corin plops onto the ground right next to her and grins. "Feel a bit better now?"

Alaylle manages to say in between breaths, "A little…"

"Just a little, huh?" Corin fishes through his pockets thoughtfully. He takes out two 1000 zeny coins and gives them to Alaylle. "Here… I know just the person to cheer you up! Go visit Karian! You haven't seen her in a while, right?"

Alaylle gently takes the two coins and nods. "Yeah… I haven't seen her in a while… Thank you Daddy!" She jumps to her feet and hugs her father suddenly.

"Eh heh heh… no need to thank me! Just go and have some fun!"

---  
Alaylle shudders at the sudden temperature change experienced from entering a warp portal from Prontera to Morroc. Knowing better than to wander around Morroc, she quickly makes her way to Karian's family tent. "Anybody home? It's Alaylle!"

"Ehh? What's a rootfoot doing in the middle of the desert?" Karian's loud voice is tinged with sarcasm. She pokes her head out of her tent's flap. "Kyahahah! It is you! Come in before you bake!"

Alaylle nods quickly and enters the tent. "Hello Karian!"

Karian looks at Alaylle and shakes her head. "Hiya Alaylle." She grins and shakes her head, as she looks Alaylle's clothing over. "And I thought you stood out in Prontera… Here you stand out like a 5 foot tall Poring!"

Alaylle blushes lightly.

"Hey hey! Don't get all hot, or you'll faint!" Karian thinks for a moment and looks around the tent. "Family's out gathering merchandise… I had something in mind too, but… I can't get it alone! You're perfect for this job!"

"I am?… But what job is this?"

"We're gonna gather the diamond of the desert!" Karian grins.

"There are diamonds in the desert?" Alaylle looks confused.

"Not real diamonds, but something just as valuable!" Karian waggles her pointer finger. "Water! People will pay absurd prices for a drink of pure, clean water!"

"I don't see what's so special about water… there's a whole fountain of it in Prontera…"

"Well, you've seen the heat around here! And I just so happen to know that there's a secret clean oasis north of Morroc!" Karian brings out a cart full of empty bottles. "Lets go find the diamonds of the desert!"

Alaylle sweatdrops. "Uhh… okay!"

"That's the spirit!" Karian shoves the cart in Alaylle's direction and Alaylle quickly stops the cart. "You bring the bottles, and I'll lead the way!"

---  
Alaylle and Karian make their way out of Morroc and make good progress north of Morroc, slowly making their way to the oasis.

bloop bloop bloop

"Ahh crud… I forgot about those…" Karian grumbles as she notices several Drops making their way to the bottle-filled cart. "Darn it! Not my bottles!"

Alaylle notices the Drops' getting closer to the cart and whips out her chain. "No stealing from Karian!" She dashes over to a Drops that's particularly close to the cart and swings her chain, sending the Drops flying away in a wide arc. She goes from Drops to Drops, flinging them away without hurting them.

"Whoa!" Karian runs up to Alaylle once the last Drops is flung away. "How did you learn to do that!"

Alaylle blushes lightly as she puts away her chain. "Oh no… it's nothing! I've just been practicing with the chain the church gave me…"

"But that's soooo neat! That's it, I've gonna go learn some neat things too!" Karian smiles happily as she starts helping Alaylle push the cart north. "And I know just the place to learn some new tricks too! I'll go to Geffen and learn magic there!"

Alaylle looks at Karian and nods slowly.

Karian grins. "I'll learn really flashy magic… yeah, that's the ticket! Oh, we're here!"

Alaylle looks at the oasis and thinks for a moment. "This place feels familiar… I think I delivered a package here before…"

"You? Deliver a package in the desert? That's kind of a farfetched story, coming from you Alaylle." Karian grins as she takes a bottle from the cart. "But after seeing you with that chain… it doesn't sound like that much of a stretch…" Karian bends down to fill the bottle with water when a person's hand stops the bottle from touching the water.

"Are you trying to take this water and sell it again, Karian?" Sister Matilda frowns at Karian.

"Oohh! Hello Sister Matilda!" Alaylle smiles happily.

"Hello Alaylle. Hmm… are you friends with Karian over here?"

"Yes I am!"

Meanwhile, Karian is grumbling to herself about being caught.

Sister Matilda glances at Karian and thinks for a moment. "If you really want this water… ahh, I know! You'll have to do a service for me!"

"Whaaaat! Why should I have to do a service for you? It's free water!" Karian crosses her arms in front of her body.

Sister Matilda shakes her head. "I purify this oasis every day and use some to make holy water for the Prontera Church. I think it's a pretty reasonable deal."

Karian keeps grumbling to herself while Alaylle walks up to Sister Matilda. "We'll do it! What do we need to do?" Alaylle smiles happily.

Sister Matilda glances again at Karian and then looks back at Alaylle. "What's reasonable… let's see here…. ah yes! Some Desert Wolf Puppies got lost here… could you walk them home to their burrow?"

"Oohh… okay!" Alaylle smiles happily. "Where are they?"

Sister Matilda leads Alaylle and a rather reluctant Karian over to a tree where three Desert Wolf Puppies are leashed. "Here they are… be sure to remove the leashes once you get them home."

Alaylle and Karian take one look at the puppies and both quickly go, "Awww… cute!"

Karian quickly catches herself after saying that. "I mean… uhh… that's something that Alaylle or Kaori would say… yeah…"

Meanwhile, the puppies sniff Alaylle and start yipping happily and wagging their tails. Alaylle is happily petting the puppies and untying the leashes from the tree. "So cute!"

"Yeah… I'll leave the puppies to you, Alaylle" Karian still looks slightly irritated at having to do this.

Sister Matilda smiles at Alaylle, "The burrow is east of here… just follow the cliffs and you'll find it. Once you find it bring back the leashes and then we'll see about the water, okay?"

Alaylle happily sets out, following the cliffs, while tugging the puppies along with her. Karian seems less excited, and walks after Alaylle, kicking the sand.

---  
Alaylle unleashes the puppies happily as they run into their underground burrow. The puppies poke their heads out of the burrow's entrance to watch Alaylle, but then quickly whimper and hide in the burrow. A loud buzzing sound is quickly heard.

Karian pales at the sound. "Th-that's the Dragon Fly!"

Alaylle pulls out her chain and dashes towards the sound.

Karian startles. "Hey! What in the world do you think you're doing! It's dang-errr?" Karian blinks her eyes quickly and then rubs them with her fingers. "Hold on just a minute! Practiced just a little, huh?" She walks over to Alaylle, who is blushing while putting away her chain. Karian looks down at the swirlly-eyed and twitching Chonchons and Dragon Fly. She suddenly starts jumping up and down on them, stomping them with her shoes. "Take this, and that, and that! This is for chasing me around all the time! This is for trying to eat me! This is…"

Alaylle sweatdrops at Karian while she stomps on the Dragon Fly and Chonchons and blushes lightly at Karian's cussing as she stomps and squishes. "Uhh… Karian? I think that's enough… I think they got the message." Alaylle smiles awkwardly.

"Heh, you'd think that, Alaylle… alright… I'll stop." Karian stops jumping and walks back over to Alaylle. "Well, now that this is taken care of… let's get that water!"

Alaylle nods happily but then stops, as a Desert Wolf Puppy has exited the burrow and is tugging on her hakama. "Hmm? What is it?" Alaylle kneels down and pets the puppy.

The puppy quickly dashes into the burrow and comes out carrying a piece of paper in its mouth. The puppy places the paper in front of Alaylle and then runs back into the burrow.

Alaylle picks up the hard paper and looks at it. One side has a strange design on it, and the other has a cute picture of Desert Wolf Puppies in a burrow.

"Whaaaaat!" Karian quickly looks at the picture and the paper. "That's a monster card! Those are sooooo rare! Lucky!"

Alaylle takes out her book while she and Karian walk back to the oasis. "Hmm… let's see… there's so many card entries… Ahh… 'Baby Desert Wolf Card… this card usually bonds with a person's clothing. It creates a constant comfortable temperature inside the clothing, keeping the wearer warm when it's cold and cool when it's hot. Helps with concentration slightly.'" Alaylle puts away her book and puts the card into a pocket in her hakama. She blinks her eyes, as the desert heat seems to dissipate. Alaylle smiles softly and quietly decides that she likes this card.

---  
"That was quick!" Sister Matilda smiles at Alaylle and Karian. "I filled up your bottles for you, Karian."

Karian grins happily and gestures Alaylle over to the cart. "Yahoo! Let's go!"

Alaylle waves happily to Sister Matilda. "Thank you Sister Matilda!" She quickly turns towards the cart and helps Karian pull it back to Morroc.

---  
Alaylle and Karian walk into the Morroc Bazaar after delivering the water back to Karian's tent. Karian keeps a careful eye out for any thieves (and does a bit of thieving of her own) as she leads Alaylle to the part of the market where warp portals are being opened.

Alaylle happily pays the acolyte to send her to Prontera. "Bye bye Karian!"

"Eh heh heh… see you soon, Alaylle! I'm gonna soooo be a mage!" Karian grins as she hops into someone else's warp portal to Geffen.

Alaylle sweatdrops as she watches her friend take someone else's portal. "Uhh… well… good luck Karian…" Alaylle says softly, but then eeps as she's warped to Prontera.

End of Chapter 16  
---  
Chapter 17 Preview!

Alaylle: "It's terrible, it's terrible!"

Corin: "They're at it again… but this time… this is taking it too far!"

Alaylle: "Dead branch monsters are everywhere! We gotta do something!"

Alaylle: "And… something big and scary visits Prontera…"

In the Next Chapter: "A Night of Chaos"

Alaylle: "Eehh? You're going to do what!"  
---


	18. A Night of Chaos

Chapter 17: "A Night of Chaos"

Alaylle stares at the flower in her hand. 'I can't think of where to put this…' She turns the gaze from the flower to the flower arrangement she has made. 'How about… no… that wouldn't feel right…' Alaylle looks around the room of the flower shop in Prontera, trying to force out an idea. Her gaze stops at her mother and at Kaori for a while before turning back to her flower arrangement.

Neyrilla is quietly kneeling in a corner of the room, gently playing the koto with her eyes closed. Kaori is carefully watering the flowers while stopping now and then to listen to the music.

Alaylle smiles for a moment and gently sets the last flower in place. She carefully picks up the flower arrangement, gets up from kneeling and walks over to her mother. "Mommy! I'm done!" She carefully sets the flower arrangement down and kneels again.

Neyrilla opens her eyes and stops playing the koto while gently looking at her daughter's flower arrangement. "Hmm… Very good Alaylle!" Neyrilla smiles softly at Alaylle and then takes another careful look at the flower arrangement. After a moment she starts laughing softly. "Hmhmhmm… Alaylle, you seem to have captured the essence of someone in this." Neyrilla smiles and gestures Kaori over. "Kaori, come over here for a moment please."

Kaori blushes softly and walks over to Neyrilla as soon as she is called. "Y-yes?" Kaori looks at the flower arrangement in front of Neyrilla and turns her gaze even closer to the floor than usual, blushing deeply. "O-oh! It's me…"

Alaylle giggles and hugs Kaori. "Yup! It sure is!"

Neyrilla smiles softly at Alaylle, then looks at the flower arrangement and then at Kaori.

Alaylle nods softly. "Kaori here, you can have it!" Alaylle smiles happily.

Kaori bows to both Alaylle and Neyrilla, "Th-thank you very much… I'll take good care of it…"

Neyrilla smiles at Kaori, "I'm sure you will, dear." She then turns to Alaylle. "Alaylle, that's enough lessons for today… why don't you go get the food for dinner tonight?" She quietly takes a bag of zeny from her sleeve and places it gently on the floor in front of Alaylle.

"Okay!" Alaylle quickly picks up the bag of coins and tries to get to her feet… a bit too quickly. "Ouch!" Alaylle winces at how her legs have fallen asleep from being sit on for too long. She manages to sit back down on the floor on her bottom while she rubs her legs back awake.

Neyrilla laughs softly. "Still haven't gotten used to sitting in a seiza, have you, Alaylle?"

Alaylle shakes her head. "Nuh uh! Just give me a few minutes sitting like this, and my legs go completely numb!" She giggles as she tries rubbing the feeling back into her legs.

---  
The southwest part of Prontera hustles and bustles as food vendors yell out their prices and continuously try to sell their goods. Alaylle walks along the lined up food carts looking at all the food and mostly ignoring the vendors' attempts to shove their products in her face, as well as their usual tricks to get her attention. She stops in front of a well-stocked cart filled with a variety of foods. A long brown haired girl in a white dress with pink highlights smiles at Alaylle. "Hello Miss Alaylle!"

Alaylle smiles happily back at the girl. "Hello Colette! The usual stuffs today… and with honey, sweet potatoes, and… Hmm… Savage meat too!"

Colette nods slowly and calls out loudly. "Porter!" A merchant carrying a cart quickly arrives at Colette's call. She quickly fills the cart with fruit, vegetables, a few jars, and some cloth-wrapped meats. "Alaylle's house, as usual." She smiles at the merchant and turns back to Alaylle. "You're earlier than usual today, Alaylle. A few weeks ago you were coming in so late… What was happening then, anyway?"

Alaylle smiles awkwardly as she pays Colette for the food. "I was… uhm… well… I was exploring outside."

"Really? What's it like out there?" Colette leans forward expectantly.

"Well… it's really green and there are so many strange creatures and monsters!" Alaylle thinks for a moment. "It's kind of dangerous too…"

"Eh heh heh… looks like Karian's finally rubbed off on you! You know how much she likes to travel."

"Well… I don't think I like it as much as Karian… but… yeah… I guess I do like it a bit."

Colette finishes counting the coins and puts them away in a pouch. "Did you know she wanted to get you to travel around more? I got it out of her when she tried stealing an apple from me."

Alaylle blinks her eyes and then giggles. "Really? That sounds soooo much like Karian! But you know, I'm doing this all on my own! I mean… it's not like Karian is with me all the time when I go outside."

Colette leans against her cart. "Hmm… then maybe one of her plans backfired. It's not the first time it's happened… remember that time when she tried painting lemons orange and tried passing them off as oranges?" She grins. "If I remember correctly, you bought them and made juice from them… and sold some delicious lemonade for more than what you paid… Karian was quite confused over that!"

Alaylle giggles and nods. "I remember that! Right after that, we sold lemonade for a while… Come to think of it… I think that's around the time me and Karian became really close friends! I was only eight years old at that time too…"

Colette nods slowly. "So her scam became something else… I wonder what she's doing now?"

"I think she's in Geffen, becoming a mage. I told her a little about my little traveling and she got excited."

Colette shakes her head. "Well, that's Karian for you… she sure gets carried away easily…"

Alaylle spots a customer approaching the cart. "Aahh… I better leave now, looks like someone wants to shop."

Colette smiles and waves at Alaylle. "Thank you for your patronage!" She winks at Alaylle. "Come again and tell me some more of your stories too! I bet they're interesting!"

Alaylle nods quickly. "I will! Although, I dunno how interesting they are."

Colette rolls her eyes lightly. "New gossip and new rumors are always interesting! And if you hear anything new and neat, come tell me, okay?"

Alaylle nods and waves back to Colette. "See you later!"

---  
Alaylle quietly walks along the wall encircling Prontera fountain square and comes to the west gate into the square. A bell suddenly starts ringing, and a portcullis closes the west gate off.

"An attack in the fountain square? But… that means… dead branches!" Alaylle quickly starts running north so that she can get home quickly.

Inside of the fountain square, several people are throwing dead branches of Yggdrasil into the air. The branches turn into monsters just before they touch the ground. The monsters quickly fan out and start attacking the people and adventurers in the square.

Alaylle quickly runs towards the north entrance of the square and suddenly stops when she hears a rumbling sound.

The north portcullis suddenly breaks and a large swarm of monsters burst out of the gate. Several guards and adventurers quickly rush at the monsters.

Alaylle keeps a good distance from the fighting, and heads past the north entrance to get to the east side of Prontera where her home is. Her home is just in sight when a large red colored fly suddenly rushes at her. Alaylle can do nothing but stare at it as it charges at her.

Two arrows quickly hit the fly just before the large fly hits Alaylle. The fly quickly turns and charges at the blue shorthaired archer girl that fired the arrows, only to get hit by two more arrows from it's back. The fly drops to the ground and turns back into a dead branch, which crumples into dust upon hitting the ground. A dark blonde haired archer boy grins and puts his bow away. "Got it!"

The archer girl walks over to Alaylle. "Are you okay? That Hunter Fly almost got you!"

"Uhm… Thank you so much! Yes, I'm all right! I'm Alaylle!" Alaylle smiles happily.

The archer girl ahems softly and the archer boy quickly runs over to her. "Oops! Heheheh… I'm Arima, and this is Moonlyte."

"Nice to meet you both!" Alaylle bows to the both of them happily.

"You should get indoors quickly, it's dangerous out here." Moonlyte nods to Alaylle.

"Oh… okay! Bye bye then!" Alaylle waves happily and quickly runs home.

Moonlyte and Arima look at each other and then both shrug.

---  
Alaylle happily washes the dishes after dinner. She turns on the little machine attached to the faucet above the sink and a little puff of steam comes from it. Soon, the little machine pumps water into the sink through the faucet. Alaylle rinses the dishes and turns off the miniature steam pump. She turns around, picks up a towel by the sink and starts drying the dishes. While drying the dishes, she looks over at her father who is examining a blueprint of an invention at the kitchen table.

Neyrilla quietly walks into the kitchen. "Dear… I have a feeling that a certain something will be visiting Prontera tonight…"

Corin looks up from his blueprint, "Aahh… Umm…" He glances over at Alaylle.

Neyrilla shakes her head softly and smiles. "No… Alaylle can come this time… I think it'll be okay."

Alaylle inclines her head as she finishes drying the last dish. "Where are we going?"

Neyrilla smiles softly, "We're going for a little walk…"

---  
Alaylle, Corin and Neyrilla quietly follow the road to the East Gate of Prontera. Neyrilla stops right before the gate sits down by the side of the road. Corin parks his cart behind him and plops down next to his wife. Alaylle sits down next to her father and looks at Corin's cart. "Daddy… why did you bring your cart?"

Corin looks at the cart and grins. "Oh, you never know when a few things'll come in handy." He ruffles his daughter's hair. "Don't worry, I don't mind tugging this thing around."

Alaylle giggles and straightens out her hair with her fingers. "Are we waiting for something?"

Neyrilla closes her eyes and nods. "He should be here soon…"

The East Gate of Prontera suddenly is torn open with a horrible grinding noise. Several guards run in the direction of the gate, but then are quickly running in the opposite direction.

Neyrilla shakes her head. "The guards these days are quite unprepared…" She quietly gets to her feet and opens her eyes.

Corin reaches into his cart and tosses a sheathed katana attached to a chain at Neyrilla.

Neyrilla neatly catches the sheath and secures it and the chain around her waist. "He's here…"

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "Mommy, since when can you use a sword? And… who's here?" She turns in the direction of the east gate and spots something approaching. It appears to be a huge goat standing on its hind legs and carrying a large scythe, with several little versions of it following it.

Neyrilla walks towards the large goat and bows to it. "Good evening old rival." She smiles softly up at the goat, which is about half a body height taller than she is.

Corin glances over at Alaylle. "Baphomet and your mother go waaaay back… The two have fought each other for even longer than we have been together."

"It's been several years, hasn't it? How about a match for old times sake?" Neyrilla smiles softly again as she twists the handle of her still sheathed katana into place. Baphomet nods and waves his kids away while holding his scythe offensively. The two stare each other down for a moment… and Baphomet makes the first move, striking diagonally at Neyrilla's shoulder.

Neyrilla quickly draws her katana and deflects the blade of the scythe while slashing at Baphomet's body. Baphomet quickly blocks with the pole of his scythe. He then tries cutting sideways with his scythe. Neyrilla quickly ducks, dashes to the side and strikes at Baphomet's side. Baphomet grunts, but then bashes at Neyrilla with his shoulder. Neyrilla cleanly dodges, "Hmm? That's new… learning from the adventurer's techniques?" Baphomet grins, nods, and charges at Neyrilla again.

Meanwhile, Alaylle has taken the portable cooking device from her father's cart and has cooked several sweet potatoes and covered them with honey, both from her father's cart. Alaylle watches the fight while nibbling on a potato and offering a few to her father.

"Heh… Alaylle, you made my favorite snack… Hmm?" Corin looks at the small Baphomets who have been attracted by the sweet smell of honey.

Alaylle smiles at them and gives all of them honeyed potatoes as well.

Baphomet and Neyrilla stare each other down, with Baphomet having taken all of the hits so far, and Neyrilla not having been touched once yet. Baphomet grins and tosses a large amount of mana into the air. Neyrilla glances up at the energy "Hmm? A wizard spell?" She quickly re-sheaths her katana and dashes to the side. Baphomet grins and strikes the ground with his scythe. A giant lightning bolt strikes the ground in front of him with several explosions of light. Neyrilla is out of range of the explosions and keeps her stance with her sword sheathed. Baphomet looks around, trying to locate Neyrilla. Neyrilla suddenly dashes at Baphomet and draws out her sword quickly 'Earth Splitting Slash'. Baphomet takes the full hit of the slash and is thrown into his own spell. Neyrilla quietly sheathes her sword again and dusts herself off.

The explosions of light end, and Baphomet is on the ground, with his scythe dropped off to his side. He gets up slowly, snatches his scythe and gets to his feet, using his scythe as a staff. Neyrilla tosses a yellow fruit to Baphomet and bows to him. Baphomet catches the fruit and eats it. His injuries heal instantly and he bows back to Neyrilla.

"A good fight as always, Baphomet!" Neyrilla smiles softly. "But you know… midway through the fight, I got distracted a bit by a certain someone's cooking." Baphomet nods. Neyrilla walks over to Alaylle with Baphomet following her.

Alaylle blushes lightly and gives potatoes to her mother and Baphomet. Neyrilla takes a small bite out of the potato and smiles softly. Baphomet takes a bite as well and looks surprisingly at Alaylle. Alaylle blushes again.

Neyrilla motions to Alaylle. "This is my daughter Alaylle… Alaylle, meet Baphomet."

Alaylle bows to Baphomet while he nods to Alaylle. "Nice to meet you, Baphomet…"

"So you old codger! I saw that fight! You're getting stronger! You never used to do those techniques before!" Corin grins.

Baphomet shrugs and pokes the pole of his scythe at Neyrilla.

"Heh… I know she's strong, but what's your sec-Oh wait… I know!" Corin looks at Baphomet's kids. "You've been training your kids haven't you?"

Baphomet grins and nods. He points up at his scythe and nods again.

"Ah! Gotta carry on the family business and technique, eh?" Corin leans against his cart. "Well, I know how hard it is to take care of a kid… dunno how hard it is to take care of five of 'em like you do, but I kinda understand! Here… you came to Prontera looking for this, right?" Corin shoves his cart in Baphomet's direction.

Baphomet halts the cart with his scythe and looks inside. The cart is full of jars of honey. He looks a bit startled and nods. He tosses a bag of zeny at Corin and takes the cart. He motions to his kids and they quickly follow him. He pulls the cart and walks back towards the east gate. He waves with his hand as he leaves through the east gate.

"Heh… still a man that doesn't waste words… but raising kids really has calmed his bloodthirstiness… I mean… he paid this time." Corin grins slightly at the zeny pouch. "Although I have to wonder how he got the zeny…" He taps the top of his head while thinking and counting the zeny. "Ohh… he paid well…"

"Hmm… maybe… it's time to teach my child as well…" Neyrilla quietly whispers to herself while glancing over at Alaylle.

End of Chapter 17  
---  
Chapter 18 Preview!

Alaylle: "Wow… I get to learn from you, Mommy?"

Neyrilla: "Yes dear…"

Alaylle: "Yay! I wanna be all fancy and neat just like you!"

Neyrilla: "Alaylle… you've been watching those adventurers outside too long…"

In the Next Chapter: "Learning the Basics"

Neyrilla: "Hmm… I also have an assignment for you…"  
---


	19. Learning the Basics

Chapter 18: "Learning the Basics"

Alaylle mutters a bit as the first few orange rays of sunlight shine through her window and onto her face. She slowly sits up in bed and stretches. Alaylle groggily skips out of bed and changes from her pink night robe into her usual clothes. After fixing her bed and tying her hair into a high ponytail, held in place with a big red ribbon of course, she heads out of her room and into the hallway to d-

Alaylle blinks her eyes. In front of her is a person that looks exactly like her, down to the ribbon! She watches as the other Alaylle blinks her eyes too. Alaylle tries stepping to the side to let the other Alaylle pass only to have the other Alaylle step to the side at the exact same time, staying in front of her. Alaylle asks while still half-asleep, "Uhh… since when do we have a mirror blocking the hallway?"

The other Alaylle laughs softly. "We don't dear…"

"Kyaaaaaahhh!" Alaylle suddenly screams and jumps into the air. After landing, Alaylle puts a hand on her heart, now fully awake. "Mommy! Don't do that! You know how I am when I wake up!"

---  
Alaylle and Neyrilla quietly walk down the streets of Prontera, following them to the southeast part of the city.

"You know Mommy… you didn't have to wake up before I did and tease me like that!" Alaylle glances sideways at her mother.

Neyrilla covers her mouth softly with her fingers, stifling soft laughter. "I'm sorry dear, but I was excited about teaching you for so long…" She smiles softly at her daughter.

"Ahh… well… by the way… where are we going?"

"To visit an old friend of mine… we can borrow his practicing grounds…"

Alaylle and Neyrilla arrive at a building with a dirt field in front of it, with strangely shaped crosses stuck in the dirt.

Neyrilla nods. "This was the Swordsman Guild…"

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "Was?"

Neyrilla nods as she leads Alaylle inside. "Yes… from what I understand, the instructors had a little… disagreement over how to teach the students. The partnership of the Guild dissolved, and only one instructor remains here now. The rest moved to Izlude and became the new official Swordsman Guild."

Neyrilla makes her way to a bored looking swordswoman sitting behind a desk. "Excuse me… may I speak to a Instructor Grey?"

The swordswoman looks Neyrilla and Alaylle over and shakes her head. "Grey isn't accepting any new applicants…"

Neyrilla smiles softly. "Just tell him that Neyrilla is here and wants to use the training room."

The swordswoman shrugs with a what-are-you-going-to-do expression and heads off to relay the message.

Soon, a white haired Knight enters the room and startles at seeing Neyrilla, and then Alaylle. "Holy Doppelganger! Which one is Neyrilla and which one is Alaylle?"

Neyrilla smiles softly and shakes her head. "I see Grey is going White…"

"Gentle wit, calm, yup, that one must be Neyrilla." Grey walks over to Alaylle. "Wow! You sure grew! The last time I saw you were about wee high!" Grey flattens his palm and places it perpendicular to his knee.

Alaylle awkwardly looks at the ground and then up at Grey. "Uhm… I know you?"

"Yup! Although I'm not surprised you don't remember me… last time I saw you, you kept hiding behind your mom." Grey grins and turns back to Neyrilla. "So, want to use the training room, huh? Come in, come in!"

Grey leads Alaylle and Neyrilla deep into the old Swordsman Guild and stops. "Here you go!"

The training room is a large room in the shape of a very large square. In the center of the room, what looks to be giant floor tiles are lined up into a large square. The square almost reaches to the edges of the room, with a clearance of about 5 feet. Several wooden and padded practice weapons are neatly placed in racks along the north wall, and chairs line the west and east sides of the room. Angled windows from the ceiling allow ample sunlight to come in and light the center of the room.

Neyrilla gently nods, takes off her shoes and heads to the center of the room. Alaylle does the same, but takes a moment to look the room over.

Neyrilla quietly sits down and looks at Alaylle. "Alaylle… here, I'll teach you the basics of fighting, but first… could you tell me what you see about this room?"

Alaylle quickly sits down. "Umm… well… it's shaped like a square… there's lots of light… Um…" She thinks for a moment… then another moment… and then uses her index finger to rub against one of the floor tiles. "There's no dust here, either… Hmm?" Alaylle pokes the floor tile gently with her finger. "The floor… it's soft…" She looks at the floor tiles carefully. "And the tiles are squares."

Neyrilla nods slowly. "That's pretty good Alaylle." Neyrilla smiles softly. "And just like that, you've learned one of the basics… the environment plays a big part in fighting." She glances down at the floor. "This floor… it's made to cushion your fall until you learn how to fall without hurting yourself… not only that… the square design is to help you get a sense of distance." Neyrilla pauses for a moment. "Oh yes… by the way… we should find a weapon for you…"

Alaylle quickly pulls out her chain. "This is my weapon!"

Neyrilla inclines her head and looks it over. "It looks like a plain chain attached to a wooden stick handle… that sort of weapon… I'm not so familiar with. It must be something rather new?" Neyrilla looks over at Grey.

"Huh? Oh, yes. The chain is one of the weapons that was recently approved by the Prontera Church… Oh! And the Swordsman Guild." Grey awkwardly glances at the ceiling. "But… I've no idea how to use a weapon like that either."

"Hmm…" Neyrilla stands up and gets a padded wooden practice sword from a stand in the room. "Alaylle… try to attack me with it."

"Eyaaahh… Mommy, but… I don't wanna hurt you!"

Neyrilla smiles softly. "Don't worry, dear… Ahh, I know… if it'll make you feel more at ease… Grey, do you mind?"

Grey sweatdrops. "Do I have to? This is gonna be humiliating… I just know it." He looks at Neyrilla's expression and sighs. "Alright, alright… be strong my wounded pride!" Grey looks up at the ceiling and clenches his fist. He then gets a padded wooden practice sword of his own and readies it.

Neyrilla casually hold the sword and nods. "Attack whenever you wish…"

Grey grips the sword in two hands and focuses his energy 'Two-Hand Quicken!"… then dashing suddenly at Neyrilla. He swings the sword at incredible speeds at Neyrilla.

Neyrilla parries several of the strikes. She then uses simple sidesteps and dodges to evade the strikes and then gently taps Grey on the head, both of his shoulders, and both of his hands twice.

Grey collapses to his knees dramatically with a tearful expression on his face. "Complete and utter defeat!" He looks to the sky to complete his hammy overacting.

Neyrilla laughs softly. "You should have become an actor, Grey." Neyrilla turns and smiles gently at Alaylle. "See? No need to worry at all."

Alaylle gets to her feet. "Okay! Here I go!" She runs at Neyrilla and then starts trying to hit her with the chain strikes.

Neyrilla neatly dodges the strikes and taps Alaylle gently on the head, shoulders, sides, arms, and legs. She watches carefully how Alaylle fights and-

Neyrilla and Grey simultaneously sweatdrop.

Alaylle has tangled herself up in her chain, making her look like a Pupa. "Uhm… hold on a moment… I'll untangle myself…" Alaylle struggles a bit. "Ouch! Uhh… on second thought… can I get some help?"

Grey leans over to Neyrilla and whispers in her ear. "Are you sure she's your daughter?"

Neyrilla gently taps Grey on the head with her practice sword. She then walks over to Alaylle and helps untangle her from her chain.

---  
After about an hour of untangling Alaylle from her chain, Alaylle, Neyrilla, and Grey sit on the floor of the training room.

Neyrilla smiles softly at Alaylle. "Don't worry dear, you're still new at this."

Alaylle blushes lightly. "Yeah… but I don't know too many people that tangle themselves up with their weapon or hit themselves with it."

Neyrilla and Grey sweatdrop simultaneously again as the thought rushes through their heads, 'She's hit herself with her weapon too?'

Neyrilla shakes her head. "Anyway, Alaylle, after watching you… you've been watching the silly fighters around Prontera, haven't you?"

Alaylle nods her head.

Neyrilla sweatdrops and nods slowly. "It shows… did you know… the whole time you were attacking me… you stayed on the same floor tile?"

Alaylle sweatdrops. "I'm not supposed to do that? I mean… they just stand still and slash away."

Neyrilla smiles softly again and sighs softly. "The quality of instruction has rather declined since my time, I guess… Anyway, you won't be able to dodge if you stand still the whole time… and it's very easy to defend only one side of your body."

"Aahh… there's a lot to this, isn't there?" Alaylle scratches her head.

Neyrilla nods. "Yes there is… but don't worry, we have lots of time to go over all of the basics…"

---  
Neyrilla knocks away a chain strike and quickly turns and dashes at Alaylle, tapping her on the head a few times.

Alaylle suddenly stops and sits down on the floor. "Whew! This is really tiring!"

Neyrilla smiles at Alaylle and lowers her practice sword. "You still have a lot to learn, but… you certainly picked up the theory quickly."

Alaylle smiles up at her mother. "Thank you, Mommy!" She then notices the sunlight coming in from the windows becoming orange. "Uh oh! It's getting pretty late, isn't it? We should head home before Daddy starts wondering where we went!"

Neyrilla slowly nods and puts the practice sword away. She turns towards Grey. "Thank you again for letting us use your training room."

Alaylle hops to her feet. "Yeah! Thank you Grey!"

Grey smiles and shakes his head. "No need to thank me! I got some good material from watching you two… Feel free to come any time!"

"Oh? I think I'll take you up on that offer, Grey." Neyrilla smiles and glances over at Alaylle. "I'll teach you more tomorrow alright, Alaylle?"

"Okay! I'll do my best!" Alaylle smiles happily.

---  
"Mommy! What are we gonna go over today?" Alaylle sits down next to her mother in the training room.

Neyrilla shakes her head and shrugs. "Dear it's been a few weeks, and you've learned all the basics already… everything else has to come from you."

"But, but… I wanna be all 'whoosh and bam' like you are!" Alaylle looks hopefully at Neyrilla.

Neyrilla laughs softly. "Alaylle… you've been watching those adventurers in Prontera too long…" She quietly shakes her head. "Most of what I do was made up by myself… and besides… it's not very suitable for a chain." She smiles at Alaylle gently. "But… I have an idea how to start… that would be perfect for you."

"Eehh? What is it?" Alaylle leans forward expectantly.

Neyrilla takes out a sheet of paper and hands it to Alaylle. "During your free time, go to this place… I'm sure you'll learn a lot."

Alaylle looks at the paper. The paper is a map with directions that lead to someplace near Geffen. "Alright! I'll go tomorrow!"

End of Chapter 18  
---  
Chapter 19 Preview!

Alaylle: "Eeeehhhhh! What is this place?"

Alaylle: "But… but… how can I learn from a place like this?"

In the next chapter: "A Lesson in Patience!"

Alaylle: "!"  
---


	20. A Lesson in Patience!

Chapter 19: "A Lesson in Patience!"

"Anyone I find slacking off I'll throw into the Prontera moat! Get up and move!"

Alaylle quietly enters the Prontera Forge carrying a basket. She immediately sweatdrops upon hearing her father yell at his workers.

The Prontera Forge, located just southeast of the Prontera fountain square, is a bustle of activity. In the back, several blacksmiths are tempering and upgrading various weapons and pieces of armor. To the left, several workers are tending to a machine that turns rough ores into usable ores for refining, and to the right, a few people sit polishing sheets of metal for sale. Corin stands at the center of it all, yelling out orders, instructions, and especially keeping everyone working.

Alaylle quietly walks over to her father and looks up at him.

"Get moving! We just got another custom-Err?" Corin takes another look down at Alaylle. "Ah ha ha! Sorry about that, Alaylle!" Corin rubs the back of his head with his right palm. "Things are just really hectic today…"

Alaylle nods slowly. "Oh no, it's alright Daddy! Umm…" Alaylle looks back and forth. "Where did you want me to help?"

Corin thinks for a moment and then turns behind him, yelling out, "Clear out forge number 8!" He then turns back towards Alaylle with a smile. "There you go! Number 8's yours! I really gotta thank you… we're so busy my eyes are spinning! And… your help does a lot more than my yelling." Corin looks behind himself again. "Move it! Clean that area up and get it ready for my daughter! It better be ready by the time she walks there or I'll throw you into the Prontera moat!"

Alaylle sweatdrops at her father's usual threat to his workers, but then nods happily. "I'll do my best, as always!" She deliberately walks slowly to forge number 8, humming softly. By the time she's reached it, a clean table has been moved by the forge fire, and a large pot has been set up above the fire.

Alaylle smiles and starts preparing a stew for her father and his workers. Soon, a wonderful aroma fills the forge, and Corin has to repeatedly yell at his workers to concentrate on their work.

Alaylle simply sits by the large pot, standing up to taste its contents once in a while, and adding in more ingredients. 'Sometimes… Daddy gets so busy with his work… that he can't come home for lunch… so… during those days, I come a few hours before lunch and make it here… and for everyone, not just Daddy… Eyahh… I hope it comes out good again this time!' Alaylle takes another taste from the pot. "Hmm… just right… Everyone, lunch is ready!"

Corin grins at his daughter. "You heard her! Lunch break!"

The workers and Corin quickly line up, as Alaylle distributes bowls of stew to all of them, including herself.

"Huh? Stew? I could have gone out and gotten something a lot better than stew!" "You're new here, aren't you?" "Yeah, so?" "Taste it. Oh, and you'd better sit down for this." "Hmph, how good could this… Whoa!" "Heh, told you."

"Thanks for doing this, Alaylle" Corin gently hugs his daughter.

"Oh no… its no problem at all!" Alaylle smiles happily.

"Hmm… after this… go take some free time, Alaylle… okay?" Corin glances at Alaylle while taking a spoonful out of her bowl.

"Eyaah! Daddy! No stealing food from me at work!" Alaylle quickly steals a spoonful back from her father's bowl.

"Bwahahaha! Then it's war!" Corin grins at Alaylle.

"It always was!" Alaylle giggles and prepares to defend her food.

---  
After an exciting, but yummy lunch, Alaylle walks out of the Prontera Forge and thinks over what to do with her free time.

"Hmm… Oh! That's right! That paper Mommy gave me!" Alaylle quickly takes the paper out of her pocket and looks it over. "Hmm… north-east of Geffen, huh? Eyaahh… I can't walk there… by the time I get there, it'd be late…" She looks back down at the paper. "Oh! Okay! That'd do the trick!" She walks over to the east gate, where a Kafra quietly rests against the wall, looking slightly bored. "Um… could you teleport me to Geffen?"

The Kafra looks up at Alaylle from her boredom. "Oh! Miss Alaylle! Yes, Miss Neyrilla told us to teleport you to Geffen if you asked… waaaait! I almost forgot! You can ask the Kafras in Geffen to teleport you back to Prontera too!" The Kafra smiles at Alaylle.

Alaylle blinks her eyes quickly. "Aahh… uhm… but… isn't there usually a charge?"

The Kafra nods slowly. "Yes… usually… but Miss Neyrilla is handling it, so don't worry, alright? Well now… all ready?"

Alaylle smiles happily. "Yes! All ready!" She blinks her eyes quickly. "Well… that was fast…"

Alaylle looks around being a bit bewildered from one minute being in Prontera, and the next second being in Geffen. "Waaaa! Geffen! But… I'm not here to sightsee… so… I should follow that slip of paper!"

---  
Alaylle enters the field northeast of Geffen and looks around. "Looks like a normal field to me… I wonder why Mommy wants me to go here?" She quietly walks around, taking in the surroundings.

The field northeast of Geffen is a field of greenery. Large trees of various types grow here, from the exotic palm, to the rather ordinary pine. The most notable feature of this place is how the Geffen River runs through the field, effectively giving the field an impression of being 4 islands. Sturdy wooden bridges connect all four "islands", and allow easy access to them all.

"Wow! Look at that thing! It's so big!" Alaylle stares at a giant snail whose shell is at waist-height with her. "I gotta find out what that is!" She quickly pulls out her monster book and flips through the pages. "Hmm… Ambernite! Ambernites are giant snails that eat vegetation and prefer areas with lots of water nearby. The reason for this is unclear, although it is believed that they enjoy a swim in fresh water once in a while, or perhaps they use the water to cool off. Often hunted for their large, colorful shells, which some people collect. Although they seem slow and harmless, an Ambernite can go into its shell and roll at an attacker to defend itself. Recent data shows that Ambernites can even out roll Pecopecos in a straight sprint." Alaylle looks back at the Ambernite crawling in front of her. "Doesn't seem so fast." Alaylle quietly sits down on the grass and watches the Ambernite slowly crawl in front of her.

Suddenly a swordsman jumps at the Ambernite in front of her. The Ambernite quickly retreats into its shell from the sudden movement and quickly rolls away from the swordsman. "You aren't getting away snaaaaaail!" The swordsman chases after the rolling snail shell.

"Wow… I guess… they are pretty fast!" Alaylle watches the swordsman chase after the rolling Ambernite. She hops to her feet and searches for another Ambernite. Upon finding one she sits down and watches it slowly crawl on the ground. "…They're kinda cute… I mean… in an 'I'm a Giant Snail!' sort of way… I think it's the shell."

Alaylle quietly watches the Ambernite crawl past her. "I wonder what I'm supposed to be doing here?" She watches the Ambernite slowly crawl up to a red mushroom and start eating it.

Suddenly the same swordsman jumps out from behind a tree and slashes at the Ambernite. The poor Ambernite goes flying out of its shell, looking stunned. The swordsman quickly picks up the shell and runs off. "Yahoo! Looks like I'll get a nice chunk of zeny for this one!"

"Oh no oh no oh nooo!" Alaylle quickly runs over to the stunned Ambernite and fans it with her hands. "Are you okay?"

The shell-less Ambernite shakes the cobwebs out if its head out and looks up at Alaylle, frightened.

"Oohh… poor Ambernite! No shell! I'd feel scared too if someone came by and took my clo- Uhh…" Alaylle suddenly blushes deeply. "A-anyway! Let's find you another shell!" She gently picks up the Ambernite in her hands and looks around.

The Ambernite shakes in fear at being picked up, and carried, but calms down when it realizes that Alaylle isn't going to eat it.

"Aaahh! Here we go!" Alaylle smiles happily as she finds an empty Ambernite shell that's a bit cracked. She places the Ambernite near the shell. "I'm sorry… it's not perfect… but… it'll have to do for now. But… at least you have a shell now!"

The Ambernite goes into the shell, and in a moment sticks its head out, and starts crawling around with it.

"Okay… now… let's find you a good shell now that doesn't have a crack in it… So you can roll around!" Alaylle kneels down while looking at the Ambernite. "Go into the shell for a while?"

The Ambernite pulls itself into the shell, while Alaylle picks up the Ambernite, shell and all. Alaylle looks at the ground while walking around, trying to find a better shell.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Alaylle looks at the Ambernite she's carrying, and the Ambernite sticks its head out of its shell. "I'm Alaylle! Nice to meet you!… Um… Hmm… I know! I'll call you Amber! That's a cute name!"

Amber sweatdrops at being named by someone who just met her, but then nods and goes back into her shell.

Alaylle finally finds a nice, unflawed, empty Ambernite shell and quickly places Amber by it. "There we go!" Alaylle smiles happily as Amber goes into the new shell. "Now you can roll around!"

Alaylle looks up at the sky. "Eeep! It's getting late! I'd better head home!" She turns back to Amber. "See you later, Amber!" Alaylle picks up the cracked shell and runs off towards Geffen.

Amber, if she had eyes, would blink in utter confusion. She then quickly spots a red mushroom growing by a nearby tree and starts munching on it.

End of Chapter 19  
---  
Chapter 20 Preview!

: "Heh…"

Alaylle: "Umm… and you are?"

: "I hate these bots!"

In the next Chapter: "A Fiery Meeting!"

: "They should all burn!"  
---


	21. A Fiery Meeting!

Chapter 20: "A Fiery Meeting!"

"Whaaaa!" Alaylle smiles happily as she checks out one of the stores in Geffen. "So much magical things for sale here! Everything looks so mystical and mysterious and scaaaary!"

The shopkeeper sweatdrops at Alaylle's enthusiasm. "Umm, Miss? Could you not talk so loudly in here? You're frightening the customers."

Alaylle blushes deeply and quiets down as she browses. At the moment, Alaylle is in one of the darker stores in Geffen. Bad lighting, creepy pictures, and various preserved monster parts, from jellopies to Deviruchi horns are for sale. Of course, Alaylle is completely oblivious to the atmosphere of the store. Instead, she is looking over some of the mushrooms for sale, playing a guessing game of "poisonous or non-poisonous" with her monster encyclopedia letting her know if she was right or wrong.

Alaylle stops her little game when she notices a familiar-looking red mushroom for sale. 'Hmm… Oh! That mushroom! That's the type Amber eats! Well… I am visiting, so it is customary to bring a gift…' She checks the price. 'Oh… 50 zeny… expensive for a mushroom!… But, I think I can afford that…' She picks up the mushroom gently and brings it over to the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper looks at Alaylle warily, seeming to want to get the happy, brightly clothed girl out of his store as fast as possible to restore the shop's atmosphere. He takes the zeny for the mushroom and quickly ushers Alaylle out of the store as fast as he can.

Alaylle looks startled at being ushered out so quickly, but once outside, she pokes her head back into the door and calls out, "Thank you!".

The shopkeeper covers his face with his palm and hopes that girl never comes back again.

'Wow! The shops in Geffen are so wonderful! Such service' Alaylle smiles happily. 'Well… okay! I've chewed enough grass on the roadside… I should spend this day off in Ambernite Field!'

---  
"Amber! I'm here!" Alaylle calls out as she enters Ambernite Field. After waiting a moment and not getting a response, she sits down and thinks this over. 'Do Ambernites even have ears?' She imagines a picture of an Ambernite and… sees no ears. 'But… I thought Amber was hearing me yesterday…' Alaylle gets to her feet. 'I'll ask Amber myself if Ambernites have ears!'

Alaylle walks northeast of the entrance and quickly spots Amber crawling north at her usual snail's pace. "Amber! I'm back!"

Amber slowly turns her head and sees Alaylle. She then starts to turn around to crawl towards Alaylle… only… Alaylle manages to catch up to Amber before she can complete her turn.

"Here Amber! I brought a gift!" Alaylle happily puts the red mushroom on the ground next to Amber.

Amber spots the red mushroom and starts eating it with teary-eyed happiness.

Alaylle checks Amber's shell while she eats. "Aahh… good! Your shell looks good! Umm… Amber… by the way… Gaaahh! I forgot my question!" Alaylle sighs and then brightens. "Oh never mind, I thought of another one! Why don't you roll to get around? I mean… the crawling must take forever!"

Amber finishes eating the cap of the mushroom and looks up at Alaylle. She then flattens herself against the ground.

"Oh… it's tiring?"

Amber finishes off the mushroom and nods.

"Hmm…" Alaylle thinks this over when she suddenly hears footsteps. She turns around and waves hello. "Hello!"

A mage blankly stares forward with unfocused eyes. He ignores Alaylle's greeting and turns strangely towards Amber. He stares at Amber and then starts casting a spell.

Amber quickly recognizes the spell targeting her and goes into her shell. She quickly starts rolling towards the mage.

"Eyaaahh! Noooo! Don't hurt Amber!" Alaylle quickly hops to her feet. "Hey! Aren't you listening? Stop!"

The mage ignores Alaylle and simply continues casting his spell.

'Oh no… what am I supposed to do?' Alaylle frantically tries to think of some way to help Amber. 'Wait! Mommy told me something about a situation like this!'

oO(Neyrilla's lesson number 2)  
Neyrilla sits down next to her daughter while she holds the padded wooden practice sword. "Let's see… ah yes… this lesson is about range and speed." Neyrilla quickly taps Alaylle on the head with her sword. "Looks like I'm in range to attack you right now."

Alaylle giggles as she is tapped on the head and nods.

"Basically…" Neyrilla stands up and holds her sword offensively. "Range is how far you can strike with a weapon." She takes a step away from Alaylle and swings again. This time the tip of the sword taps Alaylle's head. "Still in range here." She steps towards the edge of the training room center and then strikes again, this time hitting air. "Not in range anymore, right?"

Alaylle nods.

"Well… how about now?" Neyrilla suddenly dashes at Alaylle and comes to a stop right where she was during the second strike and taps Alaylle on the head.

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "Woooow!"

Neyrilla smiles at Alaylle. "This is one of the reasons why movement is so important… But! Sometimes it's better to stand still. You shouldn't worry about that for now… that's something you are better figuring out later on. Just remember, sometimes the best way to dodge is to stand completely still." Neyrilla lowers her weapon. "So… what did you learn?"

Alaylle thinks for a moment. "Whether or not an opponent can hit you or not depends on their range and speed and your own speed!"

Neyrilla smiles gently at Alaylle. "That's it in a nutshell." She thinks for a moment and then nods. "Oh yes… don't forget… a magic user's spells might not look like it, but… they also have a range. If you can get out of that range while they are preparing their spell, you will dodge it just like a normal attack."

oO(End memory)

Alaylle quickly shouts out to Amber, "Amber, instead of bashing him, roll away!"

Amber quickly turns around and rolls away from the mage.

The mage completes his spell, but Amber is far out of range. Lightning bolts strike the ground several feet away from the mage, but hit no Ambernite. The mage walks in a strange way, sometimes tripping himself with his own feet, in the direction Amber rolled.

'Amber's current speed… that would mean…' Alaylle brightens. "Amber, try charging now!"

Amber quickly turns around from her far distance and hits the mage dead on with her spinning shell.

The mage doesn't even flinch, but still gets knocked over by the charge. For some reason, it quickly pulls out a fly wing and teleports off.

Alaylle quickly runs over to Amber and starts checking her shell. "Are you okay?"

Amber comes out of her shell and nods slowly, then bows her head towards Alaylle.

"Oh no… no need to thank me! I'm just glad you're alright!" Alaylle looks over to where the mage was. "But… I wonder what that was all about…?"

Suddenly, a merchant with the same vacant look slowly walks towards Amber with his axe drawn.

Alaylle pulls out her chain. "Hey! No hurting Amber!"

Amber defensively goes back into her shell, ready to roll away from the merchant.

The merchant doesn't respond to Alaylle's words, but instead looks at Alaylle's chain and Amber curled up in her shell. He goes right up to Amber, but makes no signs of striking. He then walks away in the same strange way the mage does.

Alaylle blinks her eyes in confusion and then looks down at Amber. "Does this make any sense to you?"

Amber pokes her head out of her shell and shakes her head no.

"Hmm… all that rolling must've gotten you tired… I'll carry you for a while so you can rest and not get attacked, okay Amber?"

Amber nods and tucks herself into her shell, and Alaylle gently picks up Amber.

Alaylle walks over to a tree, and spots a red mushroom growing at its roots. She carefully picks the mushroom and pokes it into Amber's shell. "Hmm…"

A male acolyte with a biretta on his head and sunglasses covering his eyes spots Alaylle and runs up to her. He quickly stares into Alaylle's eyes.

Alaylle blinks her eyes in confusion. "Umm… hello!"

The acolyte suddenly stops. "Oh, you're not a bot. Yo!"

Alaylle smiles happily. "I'm Alaylle Rabbien! It's nice to meet you!"

The acolyte raises an eyebrow at Alaylle's enthusiastic greeting. "Heh. I'm Talien Rahl, just call me Talien, or the Assholyte."

Alaylle sweatdrops at what Talien just said. "Uhmm…"

"Don't worry, I'm only mean towards rude people and the bots."

"Ahh… uhm… just what are bots?" Alaylle inclines her head.

Talien crosses his arms. "Simple question… complex answer… Bots are lifeless automatons that mindlessly hunt down monsters for their master's profit. The owners say it "saves time". All I see is mindless mass hunting that will probably drive these Ambernites extinct in a few months. And so, I'm here hunting these lowlifes."

"Aahh… oh! I saw some people with blank stares in their eyes… they didn't respond to me talking to them… and they walked funny too! They tried to hurt Amber here!" Alaylle lifts Amber's shell slightly higher.

"Yeah, that's the way they usually are. Some spout gibberish when you speak to them, though. Amber?" Talien looks at Amber's shell.

Amber sticks her head out of her shell for a moment and nods.

"Heh. You named an Ambernite Amber. Cute." Talien lowers his head slightly and shakes his head.

"Can I come with you for a while? I wanna see the bots while Amber isn't in grave danger."

Talien shrugs. "Sure. Don't mind having a bit of company." He looks around and spots the merchant that walked up to Amber before. "There's one… it's walking in zigzag circles." He runs over to the merchant and Alaylle follows while carrying Amber.

Talien stands right in front of the merchant. "Are you human or bot?"

The merchant mindlessly continues moving in its strange way towards an Ambernite. Once in range, the merchant pulls out his axe and hefts it high, ready to strike the Ambernite.

Talien quickly pulls out his swordmace and deflects the axe strike with it. "Yup, it's a bot."

The merchant mindlessly keeps trying to hit the Ambernite the exact same way, paying no attention to how Talien is blocking his axe strikes.

"Darned bot, burn!" Talien takes out his buckler and quickly slides his swordmace against it, sending sparks flying at the merchant bot. He quickly swipes his swordmace through the sparks and the swordmace ignites for a moment as he slashes at the merchant bot. The merchant bot is shoved back by the impact and seems stunned. Talien quickly pulls a blue gemstone out of his pocket and throws it at the bot. A warp portal opens up underneath it and warps it away.

Talien puts away his buckler and swordmace. "Heh. Have a nice trip to Lutie. I hear it's nice and death-chillingly cold this time of year." He adjusts his sunglasses and turns to Alaylle and Amber. "That's one down, many more to go."

"Aahh…" Alaylle and Amber look at each other for a moment.

"I won't bore you with the rest of my work… But hey, check out the Prontera Parish in the Prontera Church sometime. I think it'd be a good thing for you." Talien grins and adjusts his sunglasses as he walks off in search of the next bot.

Alaylle looks back down at Amber after Talien departs. "Hmm… looks like things are getting pretty hairy here, huh Amber?" She thinks for a moment, and then brightens. "I know! How about I train you? That way, you can fight off the bots, and maybe get strong enough to roll for longer periods of time!"

Amber pokes her head of out of her shell, thinks for a moment, and then nods.

"Waii! It's decided then!" Alaylle smiles happily.

End of Chapter 20  
---  
Chapter 21 Preview!

Alaylle: "Hold iiiiit! It's Omake time once again!"

Alaylle: "I'll be taking a break from Ambernite field to rest in Geffen!"

Alaylle: "There, I find a really neat diversion!"

In the next Chapter: Omake 2: "Ragnarok Online Monsters!"

Karian: "Yeah! It's the latest thing!"  
---


	22. Omake 2: Ragnarok Online Monsters!

Omake 2: Chapter 21: "Ragnarok Online Monsters!"

Alaylle sits down comfortably on a bench in Geffen. "Aahh… it feels good to sit down after being on your feet for so long!" Alaylle shuffles through her things and pulls out a boxed lunch covered by a red metal wrapping. She carefully removes the wrapping, folds it, and pockets it. Alaylle happily opens up the box and the wonderful smell of warm food quickly spreads out into the air. Several people walking by halt and smell the delicious aroma coming from the box. "Ittadakimasu!" Alaylle pulls out a pair of chopsticks and gets ready to start eating.

"Waaaaaaiiit! I know that smell! Only one person in all of Rune-Midgaard, no… the world makes food that smells that good!" Karian comes running out from behind a building, wee-waving around people and shoving some out of her way until she skids to a neat stop right in front of Alaylle.

"Uhh…" Alaylle quickly recovers her wits. "Hello Karian!" Alaylle smiles happily at Karian.

Karian promptly sits down next to Alaylle and starts staring at Alaylle's lunch. "That looks sooooooo good!"

"Something tells me you don't have lunch." Alaylle happily pulls out another pair of chopsticks and gives them to Karian.

"Yeah… I was thinking of getting something, but then… my nose found something 10 times better!" Karian awkwardly fumbles with the chopsticks. "Gaahh… Alaylle, how do you use these things?"

"Like this" Alaylle picks up a ball of garlic deep-fried chicken with her chopsticks and feeds it to Karian.

"Mmm…" Karian chews while thinking for a moment… then swallows. She looks at Alaylle with tearful eyes. "I can't learn something this complicated when I'm this hungry!"

"Okay, okay! We'll practice with them later… I'll feed you then, you big baby." Alaylle giggles.

Karian makes her voice as sweet as she can. "Okay, Mommy! Feed me!" Karian opens her mouth and points inside of it with her index finger.

Alaylle giggles and shakes her head. She starts eating from her box and feeding Karian at the same time. Soon the box is empty and Karian is looking at Alaylle expectantly. "Hmm? Is there something on my face?"

"Oh come on… you can't fool me! I know you too well! You're packing more boxes! You might eat like your mom, but you eat as much as your dad!" Karian grins and taps her foot.

"Aww… but… but… I wanted to gobble these up myself!" Alaylle mock sighs and takes out 4 more boxes from her sleeves. "Hee hee hee… take your pick, Karian!"

---  
"I dunno how you make food like that, Alaylle. I mean… put me in a kitchen and I can't tell a sink from the stove." Karian leans back on the bench. "Ah! I know how to repay you for lunch! Come on!" Karian quickly hops to her feet.

"Hmm?" Alaylle looks up at Karian and gets off the bench.

"It's the latest thing that's sweeping Geffen!" Karian grabs Alaylle's ponytail and drags her off. "It's a card game that uses the monsters all around Rune-Midgaard! It's called 'Ragnarok Online Monsters'!"

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "Strange name for a card game… just what is 'Online' anyway?"

Karian grins. "The creators of the game put that in because there's a special machine that's needed to play the game, and all of the machines are gonna be all connected! Only… well… for now, it's only in Geffen. But I bet it'll soon spread all around the world!" Karian pulls Alaylle into Geffen Tower and starts pulling her up the stairs inside. She lets go of Alaylle's ponytail once at the top, where a wizard is looking through some cards. "Here you go! Sign up! It's free!… It's the cards that cost zeny." Karian grins and sweatdrops.

Alaylle walks up to the wizard behind the desk. "Umm… how do I sign up?"

The wizard looks up from his cards and points over to what looks like a stone podium. "Stand over there. You'll be signed up once your card pops up in the upper-left slot."

Alaylle nods and stands behind the stone podium. A soft humming comes from the podium and a gold-bordered card pops out of the upper-left slot. Alaylle takes the card and walks back to Karian.

"Ooo, ooo, ooo! I wanna see your card!" Karian stands on tiptoes and jumps, trying to look at it.

Alaylle hands the card over to Karian. "I've no idea what this thing is saying."

Karian looks over the card eagerly. She then promptly sweatdrops and narrows her eyes. She suddenly dashes over to the wizard behind the desk and scarily starts yelling at him. "What are you trying to pull old man? This is a terrible card!"

The wizard grumpily looks up at Karian. "All of the cards assigned to people have their strengths."

Karian's face gets red. "Not this one! Look at it!" She stuffs the card in the wizard's face.

The wizard hmphs, but reluctantly looks at the card. His eyes immediately widen. "This one… is terrible… no… absolutely horrible!" He quickly gets up and checks the stone podium. "No… nothing's wrong with the device…" He sits back down at his chair and looks at the card again. "…Character Cards aren't supposed to be like that… I wonder why hers is like that…" He sighs and gives the card back to Alaylle. "It can't be helped… but… I feel guilty…" He picks up a wad of cards and hands them to Alaylle. "Here… this is what you're supposed to start with… but…" The wizard takes another clump of cards from another stack and gives them to her too. "Those should make things a bit more even…"

Alaylle looks at the cards she was given. "I don't understand… how does this work?"

Karian grins. "The best way to learn is by playing! Come on, Alaylle!"

"Alright! Umm… where do we play?" Alaylle looks around.

"Eh heh heh… you know that stone thing you were standing at? You find two that are facing each other!" Karian points at the south part of the room. "There's a pair over there!"

Alaylle walks up to one of the podiums and takes a closer look at it. "Eyahh… all of these things… what is used for what?"

The stone podium's table has a slot in the upper-left corner, lower-left corner, 2 rows of 5 indentations for cards, and a big slot in the lower-right corner.

Karian looks at hers. "Well… the upper-left slot is for your character card… the lower-left slot is where you draw from… the top row is for monsters… the bottom is for spells, skills, and items… and that hole in the right corner is your discard pile. Don't worry; it makes more sense once you start! Start by putting your character card in, and placing your cards in the discard slot… it'll shuffle up your cards for you!"

Alaylle puts her cards into the slots and looks back at Karian. "Okay!"

"I'd show you how to play, but… ick… that character card… I can't even explain skills and spells to you because…" Karian points at Alaylle's character card. "'This character cannot use any skills or spells.' I mean… yuck… you're stuck using items! But! Mine uses lots of spells, so… I guess we can go over it then!" Karian holds up her card. "Mine is pretty good! Plus, I've gotten stronger since I used it last… they get better when you get better!" She shows the card to Alaylle. "See? I get to use the Steal card and Wizard cards… although I have to pay a bit more to use those… it's still really great! I wonder if yours will get a lot better after a while?" Karian sticks her character card in.

Karian looks at the Hit Point counters on both sides and sweatdrops. "Eeehh? You even don't have as many Hit Points as I do?" She pulls a piece of paper out of her pocket, crumples it up into a ball and tosses it at the wizard's head.

"Oww…" The wizard rubs the spot where the ball hit gently and goes back to sorting his cards.

"Old man, those cards you gave her better make up for it!"

"Maa maa… Karian… it's all right, really! Uhm… you were telling me how to play, remember?"

"Oh, that's right! Draw seven cards… Uhm… you can play one monster per turn… but as many items, skills, and spells as you want! You should go first… Ahh… and draw one for the beginning of your turn too!"

Alaylle draws 8 cards and looks them over. "I still have no idea what I'm doing… but… here goes!" She plays a Poring Card in the far left monster slot.

Karian grins. "Good, good! At least you put it in the right place..." She looks at the card Alaylle played. "Gah… I hate Porings… their ability, Apple Guard gets on anyone's nerves really fast! Even though they are really weak…"

"Apple Guard?" Alaylle looks at the card. "Once a turn, you may prevent damage from one source." She looks back at Karian. "Is that good?"

Karian nods. "Yup! One of the best defenses in the game! It gets really frustrating when all 4 pop up… Anyway… it's a chance to attack! Even though it's attack power is only 1… it still counts!"

"Okay! I'll have the Poring attack you then!" Alaylle eeps a bit as she sees a Poring hop across the field and tackle Karian. "Eehh? What was that?"

"Hmm… well, I'm down to 149… Huh?" Karian looks down at the field. "Oh… when you play a monster card, the podiums make an illusion of that monster! Porings are so small, I guess the podium was blocking the way, huh?" She notices the position of the Poring. "Ahh, that's right! Alaylle, remember, most monsters will attack by charging in a straight line. There are some that don't but… don't worry about those for now. Monsters defend the spot where they are, and the two slots left and right of them! So… your Poring can only defend the left-most slot and the left slot… uhh… better move it one right so it can at least cover the middle too! You can move a monster once a turn, but… you can't place two on one slot!"

Alaylle moves the Poring Card one slot over to the right. "Like this?"

Karian nods. "Yup! Well, you attacked and moved, so you can't do anything else… my turn! Uhmm… I'll show you what I mean by defending…" She looks through her hand. "Ahh, this one will do the trick!" She plays a Picky Card in the middle slot. "Okay Picky, attack Alaylle!" A Picky appears on the field and charges at Alaylle.

Alaylle looks down at her Poring Card, which is glowing. "Uh… this means it can block the attack, right?"

"Yup! Make sure you use Apple Guard, though… or it'll go splat!"

"Alright! I'll have my Poring block and use Apple Guard!" Alaylle smiles happily. The Poring on Alaylle's side spits out an apple at the charging Picky. The Picky immediately stops and starts pecking at the apple.

"You don't know how irritating that gets after a while…" Karian groans and shakes her head. "Anyway, I'll play this card face down on this slot opposite your Poring… and move this Picky one to your right. See? If you don't move your Poring, this Picky can get past it and attack you!"

"Umm… Karian? What about that card you put face down?"

"Oh this, it's a secr- Oh… wait… here I am getting ahead of myself when I'm trying to teach you how to play!" Karian turns the card over, revealing a Lightning Bolt spell card. "Eh heh heh… it's a spell card! As much as I'd love to use it right now, with your Apple Guard used up, I can't… it has a charging time! After each person's turn, all the cards in your skill, item, and spell slots turn a little bit to store the charge! This one takes up at least one turn to charge to use… so during my next turn, I can use it! The most devious thing is… you never know what kind of card might be in there! You might get all nervous over a charging item! Well, that's the end of my turn!" Karian turns the Lightning Bolt card clockwise and stops it so that it's diagonal. "This is half a charge… there are some spells that are devious and only take half a turn to charge… those can be used on your opponent's turn! Eh heh heh… I have some in this deck too!"

Alaylle draws her card and then places 5 cards in the item/skill/spell slots.

"Yipes!" Karian looks over at the wizard. "Old man, you gave her tons of item cards, didn't you?"

The wizard looks up from his cards and shrugs. "You told me to be fair."

"Hmm… I'll move my Poring to the middle slot… Uhh… trying to attack wouldn't work very well, would it? That Picky can easily block my attack... but… it'd lose some Hit Points at least… Poring, attack!"

Karian rolls her eyes. "I won't block… its only 1 Hit Point…"

"Ahh… well… I'll play another Poring on the far right slot and have it attack you too!"

Karian grumbles to herself. "The health loss I can take… but… two Porings are gonna be hard to take out… Hmm… 147 HP left over here…"

"Hmm… I'll keep the Poring in place… your turn Karian!"

"Okay… I'm not gonna hold back anymore, Alaylle!" Karian draws her card and turns her Lightning Bolt spell so that it's horizontal. "Here it comes! Lightning Bolt!" She discards the spell card and discards a card from her hand.

Alaylle giggles and flips over a card. "I'll Apple it!"

Karian grumbles to herself some more. "Oohhh… damage prevention cards get sooo on my nerves!" She looks back at her hand. "Eh heh heh… Now this is more like it! I'll play a Hornet Card!" Karian plays the card in the middle slot and then another Hornet Card appears to it's left.

"Eehh? How come two popped up?" Alaylle looks at the two Hornet Cards on Karian's side. "It's not an effect on the card…"

"It's because the Hornet is an Assisting monster! It always calls for help! But only on adjacent slots! Okay! I'll make all my monsters attack!"

"I'll have my Poring block the two Hornets with both Apple Guards! And… well… I'll let the Picky hit me!" Alaylle looks at her HP counter. "Aahh… 95 left…"

"Hmm… this is gonna take too long with that many Porings so… I'll discard a card from my hand… and play this card, Lord of Vermillion!" Karian grins and places the card in the center slot.

"Gosh… that's a wizard spell, isn't it? Ahh… that's right… your card lets you play those…"

"It's the perfect time to play it! You have nothing but Porings, and you can't interrupt my spell by hitting me in the center slot! After all, I have three monsters guarding it! It may take a while to charge… but… I think my defense is pretty solid right now! That's all for my turn!" Karian grins and rotates her cards half a charge.

Alaylle draws her card and plays another Poring in the far left slot. "I guess I just need to prepare to defend… Hmm?" She looks at her Poring Cards as they start to glow. "Karian, what's this mean?"

Karian looks over at Alaylle's cards. "Eeehhhh! That means you can do a special summon! But… there's only one monster that works off of three Porings…" Karian turns to the wizard. "Hey, old man! You didn't give Alaylle a Mastering, did you?"

The wizard raises an eyebrow as he looks at Karian. "No, I didn't… I just gave her item cards… perhaps the young lady picked one up before?"

Karian looks confused. "But… that can't be right… She just started today…" Karian looks over to Alaylle. "But I'm interested what's gonna pop up! To do the summon, discard the glowing cards!"

Alaylle nods and discards the three Poring Cards. A gold-rimmed card pops out of her draw slot. "This?"

Karian's eyes widen. "Eehh? A gold-colored rim? I've seen silver colored ones… those come from defeated monsters… a lot of the experienced players have them… But I've never seen a gold-colored one outside our character cards…"

The wizard behind the counter stands up. "Now this is interesting… young lady, Alaylle was it? Would you play that card?"

Alaylle looks at the card carefully. "This card seems familiar somehow… Huh? Oh, right! Here goes!" Alaylle plays the Mastering Card in the center slot. The moment the card falls in place, a summoning circle appears on the field and in a flash of light, a Mastering appears with its mob of Porings, Drops, and Poporings!

Alaylle blinks her eyes, and then smiles happily. "Mr. Mastering! What are you doing here?"

Karian and the wizard say at the same time, "Mr. Mastering?"

Alaylle smiles happily. "Yes! This is the Poring I met a long time ago and got a card from! He really grew… I wonder what he ate to become so big? Anyway, I know it's him because he still has that little bandage I put on his head!"

Karian blinks her eyes. "I see… anyway… shall we continue?"

Alaylle nods quickly. "Mr. Mastering, help me win this game!"

Mr. Mastering nods and arranges his mob in a battle formation.

"Huh? Oh… these cards must represent his friends…" Alaylle points to the "Poring Assault Squad" Cards that have filled the other four slots. "Eh heh heh… lemme see… what were his special attacks again? Ahh! I remember! Mr. Mastering, Layered Squash!"

Mr. Mastering inhales his mob, becoming huge, and then lunges at Karian.

"Gahh! I'll block with a Hornet!"

Mr. Mastering splits into an explosion of Porings, Drops, and Poporings upon impact with the Hornet, hitting the Picky, the other Hornet, and Karian. The two Hornets and Picky collapse, all swirlly-eyed.

"That attack hits everything! I'm down to 97… and my spell got interrupted too!" Karian sighs as she discards her magic card.

Alaylle looks at the four Poring Assault Squad Cards. "Hmm… Attack Karian while she can't block!"

A swarm of Porings, Drops, and Poporings attack Karian. "Eyaahh… so many bouncing smiling faces! I'm down to 77!"

"Okay! That ends my turn!" Alaylle smiles happily.

Karian sweatdrops. "That was… really powerful… here's hoping!" Karian draws a card. "Hmm… this will let me stall, at least…" Karian plays two cards face down. "That's it… I need to get more cards before I can do anything to stop that Mastering!" She turns the two cards a half charge.

Alaylle draws her card and is quickly interrupted by Karian. "Hold iiiiiit!"

Karian flips over both face down cards, a Safety Wall card and a Blue Gemstone Card. "I'm using Safety Wall! I'm not losing on this turn!"

Alaylle looks at her face down cards. "Eh heh heh… but I have something to win here!" Alaylle flips over the item card Banana. "I'm gonna slip your Safety Wall one to the left!"

"Whaaaat! But then… I'm wide open to the Mastering!" Karian sweatdrops.

"I'm gonna use the Poring Assault Team's ability!" Alaylle discards all four Poring Assault Team Cards. "That loads the Poring Machinegun! Mr. Mastering, fire at Karian, and then attack!"

"I'm at… -13 Hit Points…" Karian blinks her eyes. "Kyahahaha! That's what I expect from my rival, Alaylle!" Karian smiles happily.

"Thank you so much Mr. Mastering!" Alaylle quickly runs out and hugs the Mastering.

"Whoa! Hold on there, that's not an illusion?" Karian walks onto the field and pokes Mr. Mastering. "Yeow! It really summoned him!"

Mr. Mastering nods and nestles close to Alaylle.

"But… he really was attacking me, wasn't he?" Karian looks over at Alaylle.

"Yeah, he was… but… it's just a game! It's not like you'd die or get hurt or anything like that!" Alaylle lets go of Mr. Mastering.

The wizard quietly walks back behind his counter and sits down. "Well now… that was worth watching! Thank you two, for showing me something interesting."

The summoning circle appears underneath Mr. Mastering and transports him away.

Alaylle waves goodbye as Mr. Mastering leaves. "Bye bye Mr. Mastering! I'll see you later!"

Alaylle takes her cards from the podium and starts looking at them.

Karian notices Alaylle and quickly collects her own cards, then running over to Alaylle and looking over her shoulder. She quickly spots the other gold-rimmed cards in Alaylle's deck. "Aahh… I remember that Desert Wolf Puppy Card that the puppy gave to you… Oh, you have a Vocal Card too? Hmm… you got some rare stuff in there, Alaylle!"

"Ahh… Thank you for telling me about this game, Karian!" Alaylle smiles happily up at Karian.

"Aww… no need to thank me! Besides, I didn't even get to fully explain the game… oh well… if you play others you'd get the other rules I didn't explain…" Karian inclines her head. "Oh, by the way… Alaylle, weren't you in the middle of something?"

Alaylle startles and panics a bit. "Oh no oh no oh no! Yes, I was in the middle of training! I gotta get back to work!" Alaylle puts the cards away in her sleeve. "Bye bye Karian! I'll see you later!" She waves goodbye to Karian while running out of the room.

Karian waves to Alaylle. "Eh heh… well… until next time, Alaylle!"

End of Omake 2: Chapter 21  
---  
Chapter 22 Preview!

Alaylle: "Now it's time for me to train Amber…"

Alaylle: "Only… it seems Amber is the one training me!"

Alaylle: "And the calm peace of Ambernite Field is broken!"

In the next Chapter: "Horn Hazards!"

Alaylle: "What dangerous looking bugs!"  
---

Alaylle: Chotto matte! That was kinda confusing, wasn't it? Well… in all truth, I made up lots of other cards, but… Uhh… the Chapter was already getting kinda long. Anyway! Here are the cards featured in this chapter, and some that got cut!

Character Cards:  
Alaylle, HP: 100, Level 35, Acolyte Class. Attack: 1, Defense: 0. Alaylle cannot use any skill or technique cards.

Karian, HP: 150, Level 45, Mage Class. Attack: 1, Defense: 0. (From Level 15 Card) Karian my use the Steal Card by discarding one card from her hand. Karian may use Wizard Spell Cards but must discard 1 card from her hand before playing it, and the card must be played face up.

Monster Cards:  
Poring, HP: 1, Level 1, Water/Plant. Attack: 1, Defense: 0. Looter (If this monster makes a successful attack against your opponent, and an Item/Skill/Spell card is in the same column as this monster, when the card is flipped over, and is an item, you may choose to immediately use the item or discard it). Effect: Apple Guard: Once a turn, you may prevent damage from one source.

Picky, HP: 4, Level 1, Fire/Brute. Attack: 5, Defense 0. Growth: If Picky stays in play for 8 turns, you may discard Picky, turning it into a Pecopeco.

Hornet, HP: 8, Level 1, Wind/Insect. Attack: 10, Defense 0. Assist (If there is a open slot to the left or right of this monster, another Hornet will appear in your choice of either open slot.)

Pecopeco, HP: 50, Level 20, Fire/Brute. Attack: 20, Defense: 0. If Pecopeco was grown from a Picky, it gains the Attack: Charge: Even if Pecopeco is blocked, it may deal damage directly to the Character. Growth: If Pecopeco stays in play for 8 turns, you may discard Pecopeco, turning it into a Grand Peco.

Grand Peco, HP: 400, Level: 60, Fire/Brute. Attack: 250, Defense: 30. If Grand Peco was grown from a Pecopeco, it gains the Attack: Full-Speed Charge: Even if Grand Peco is blocked, it may deal damage directly to the Character, and all of your opponents monster cards in play.

(Yes, Karian likes that series of cards)

Fabre, HP: 3, Level 1, Earth/Insect. Attack: 1, Defense: 0. Growth: If Fabre stays in play for 8 turns, you may discard Fabre, turning it into a Pupa.

Pupa, HP: 21, Level 1, Earth/Insect. Attack: 0, Defense: 0. If Pupa was grown from a Fabre, it gains +50 to Defense. Growth: If Pupa says in play for 8 turns, you may discard Pupa, turning it into a Creamy.

Creamy, HP: 30, Level 20. Wind/Insect. Attack: 30, Defense: 0. If Creamy was grown from a Pupa, it gains the Effect: Teleport Wings: If Creamy is affected by any card or attacks, you may flip a coin, if heads, Creamy is unaffected.

(The above series is actually in Alaylle's deck)

Mr. Mastering, HP: 1000, Level 30. Water/Plant. Only Alaylle may play Mr. Mastering. Attack: 50, Defense: 30. If there are 3 Porings in play, you may discard them to bring Mr. Mastering into play. Mob: Once Mr. Mastering is summoned, discard all other monster cards in play, and bring 4 "Poring Assault Squad" Cards into play in the remaining slots. Attack: Layered Squash: If all 4 Poring Assault Squad Cards are in play, Mr. Mastering may attack all of the opponent's monsters at once, including the opponent's character card. Attack: Poring Machine Gun: Discard a Poring Assault Squad Card to reduce any card's HP by 10.

Poring Assault Squad, HP: 115, Level: 20. Water-Fire-Poison/Plant. This card may not be brought into the game unless it was summoned as part of Mr. Mastering's Mob. Attack: 5, Defense: 0.

Mr. Vocal, HP: 1500, Level: 40. Earth/Insect. Only Alaylle may play Mr. Vocal. Attack: 80, Defense: 50. Mob: Once Mr. Vocal is summoned, discard all other monster cards in play, and bring 4 "Rocker Orchestra Group" Cards into play in the remaining slots. Effect: Screech Strike: Instead of attacking, Mr. Rocker may use this to disable all text past Defense of your opponent's monster cards until your next turn.

Rocker Orchestra Group, HP: 100, Level: 20. Earth/Insect. This card may not be brought into the game unless it was summoned as part of Mr. Vocal's Mob. Attack: 50, Defense: 20. Effect: Back-up Band: The Item/Skill/Spell slot in the same column as this card are disabled. If there is already a card in the slot, discard it.

(Gold)Desert Wolf Puppy, HP: 20, Level: 10. Fire/Brute. Only Alaylle may play this Desert Wolf Puppy Card. Attack: 15, Defense: 0. Effect: Burrow: Instead of attacking, you may turn this card face down. While face down, this card cannot be attacked, or be affected by Items/Skills/Spells. The next turn, this card must be turned face up and attack, but its Attack will double.

(Gold-rimmed cards are only received from monsters, when given willingly. Other people may have them… but 99.99 of people who do will only have gold-rimmed cards gotten from their pets!)

Items:

Apple: Prevent damage from one source.

Banana: Move any one card one space to the left or right.

Magnifying Glass: Turn any one card face up.

Yggdrasil Leaf: If there are any open monster slots, take one monster card from your discard pile and play it in the open slot of your choice. The monster will only have 1 HP.

Red Potion: Heals 10 HP.

Blue Potion: When used, act as if you have discarded two cards from your hand.

Blue Gemstone: Needed to use some spells.

Jellopy: Add one Jellopy to your Jellopy Pile.

Equipment: Clip: Discard one of your monster cards in play and attach it to this card. Your character gains any Effects or Attacks that the monster had.

Spells:

Lightning Bolt. Target: Column. Charge time: At least 1 turn. Upon using this spell, discard X cards from your hand up to a limit of 10 cards. This spell does 5 X damage to the target. If the monster is a Water-type, do 10 X damage to the target.

Cold Bolt, Fire Bolt: Same as Lightning bolt, except Cold Bolt's 10 X is against Fire, and Fire Bolt's 10 X is against Earth.

Napalm Beat: Target: Column. Range: 1. Charge time: At least half a turn. Upon using this spell, discard X cards from your hand up to a limit of 10 cards. This spell does 2 X damage to the target and any in range. If the monster is a Ghost-type, do 4 X damage to the target.

Safety Wall: Target: Column. Charge time: At least half a turn. Requirement: Blue Gemstone. This spell will block attacks to the monster or character in the same column that this spell is placed, but will last as long as it was charged.

Skill:

Steal: Discard one card from your hand. When your character lands a successful attack against the opponent, you may flip over one of their Item/Spell/Skill cards. If that card is an item, you may choose not to deal any damage to discard the item, or use it yourself. If damage is chosen to be dealt, the card remains face up. Discard Steal after use.

Alaylle: Oh yes… you were probably wondering what was with the Jellopy and the Jellopy Pile. Well, you can discard your own monsters to gain 1 Jellopy per monster discarded. By discarding the Jellopys in your Jellopy Pile you get to draw cards. Draw double the amount of the cards you discarded from the pile. Don't deck yourself out! Also, higher level monsters cost Jellopy to play! Level 1-10s are free, but past that, it costs (Level – 10)/10 Jellopy unless you play them in special ways, such as Growth. There's also Scells, Garlets, and Zargons, but I won't go into them yet! I'll just say those are the keys to playing high level monsters without sweating over the Jellopy! Alaylle even had a few Jellopy already in her Jellopy pile when she played Karian because of the level difference of the characters, but Karian never told her about Jellopy!

Alaylle: Oh yes… Once equipment is revealed, it attaches to the Character Card and frees up the Item/Skill/Spell slot. There are decks that even have minimal monsters and just focus on beefing up the Character Card! They're scary only if the player gets lucky enough to get all the equipment they need! All those duplicates of equipment can mean a card discarding skill/spell slugfest!

Alaylle: Oh, and Alaylle's not the only one with gold-rimmed cards! Some people have their own special skills/techniques that get made into gold-rimmed cards. Even special weapons!

Alaylle: Well, enough of my own little spoof of collectible card games! 

Alaylle: A spin-off series? Uhh… maybe… maybe not… But the Omakes of the future might involve this ;


	23. Horn Hazards!

Chapter 22: "Horn Hazards!"

"Ambeeer! Where are you?" Alaylle glances back and forth as she tries to find a certain Ambernite. "I knew I should have eaten lunch here… but noooo… I just had to go to Geffen…" Alaylle looks at the ground and sighs. While she looks at the ground, she spots a huge black beetle with even larger than normal mandibles. "Kyaaaaaa!"

Alaylle jumps high into the air with an extremely frightened face. "Giant buggie!" The moment she lands from her jump, she runs away frantically from the giant insect. Alaylle blinks her eyes and looks back… the beetle isn't chasing her at all. She takes out her monster book and, from a safe distance, looks up what the beetle is. "Hmm… Horn? That's kind of a fitting name for a bug with such big jaws… although… maybe 'Jaws' would be a better name? Or maybe 'Bites', or 'Chews', or… uh… anyway." Alaylle quickly shakes her head to get herself back on subject.

"Hmm… Horns are a type of huge insect that feeds on plants. Can be identified by the distinctive sound of their mandibles striking each other as they walk. Despite their intimidating and threatening appearance, these beetles are quite docile. However, if angered and threatened, this beetle will not hesitate to lunge at the offender with a painful scissor-like snap of its mandibles." Alaylle plays with a stand of her hair by winding it around her finger. "I guess they're okay then… Better not get one angry!" She quickly puts away the monster book. "Uh… now… what was I doing again?"

Alaylle quickly brightens. "Ah, that's right! Amber! Where are you Am-huh?" Alaylle looks down at the ground when she feels something nudge her shoe. "Oh! There you are Amber!"

Amber the Ambernite looks up at Alaylle expectantly.

Alaylle blushes and looks away. "Don't give me that look… I know I'm late! One of my friends distracted me with a game of cards!" Alaylle sweatdrops when she realizes how terrible of an excuse that sounds. "Anyway! Let's get started on that training, Amber!" Alaylle smiles happily.

Amber nods and looks up at Alaylle again.

"Ready, huh? Okay, let's start then! Here I go!" Alaylle pulls her chain out of her sleeve, runs towards Amber and strikes the top of Amber's shell with her chain.

Naturally, Amber has withdrawn into her shell and already started rolling once the chain strikes. The chain strike even helps Amber start rolling.

Alaylle readies another strike as Amber turns around and tries to roll bash her. She strikes the top of Amber's shell again with her chain, and barely manages to get out of the way of the rolling shell.

Amber doesn't seem affected by the chain strikes at all, and continues to pick up rolling speed. The next two passes against Alaylle are the same; with Amber's roll missing, and Alaylle's chain bouncing off the shell.

"Eyahh… That shell… my chain doesn't do much of anything against it… gotta try something else…" Alaylle readies her chain again for another strike.

Amber suddenly pokes out of her shell while the snail shell's opening points towards the ground, giving the spinning shell enough lift to make a jumping tackle at Alaylle.

Alaylle takes the hit and hops back a few steps from the impact. Even though her clothing protected her from the tackle, it still stung. "Oww… Wow… I never thought you could jump, Amber!" She watches the Ambernite roll off for another strike and watches the way the shell rolls. 'Oh! I got it!'

Amber rolls back towards Alaylle for another strike, when Alaylle suddenly strikes the lower part of Amber's shell. The shell starts swerving wildly and then starts spinning horizontally rather than vertically. Amber's shell tips over and spins on its side on the ground. Amber comes flying out of the shell's opening the moment the shell starts spinning on its side on the ground.

Alaylle quickly runs and catches Amber softly before she hits the ground. "Eyaahh! Amber, are you okay?"

Amber's eyes are all swirls, but she dizzily nods.

Alaylle walks over to Amber's shell and sets Amber back into it. She then starts fanning Amber with her hands.

Amber slowly recovers and looks up at Alaylle.

"Hmm… that spinning shell is really something! Its just… well… if you hit it from the side… the shell sort of goes nuts, doesn't it?"

Amber nods.

"Hmm… we'll figure out a way to get around that! Let's go again!"

Amber quickly nods and withdraws back into her shell.

Alaylle readies her chain. "Okay! Let's start!"

Amber simply stays still in her shell.

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "Huh? I guess you want me to attack first…" She quickly strikes the shell with her chain… and sweatdrops as the chain just bounces off the shell. "Okay… let me try it this way!" Alaylle strikes the shell again and again, from all sides of it… and the chain just continues to bounce off.

Alaylle stops for a moment to catch her breath. She manages to say in between breaths, "Amber… what… are… you… doing?" She goes up to Amber and tries picking her up. The shell is firmly anchored to the ground. Alaylle sighs and then tries pulling the shell off the ground.

Amber suddenly pushes the shell off the ground and tackles Alaylle as she's lifting the shell.

Alaylle gets hit by the tackle and falls over onto the ground with Amber's shell on her stomach. This time, she's the one with swirlly eyes.

Amber pokes her head out of her shell carefully, so as not to slime Alaylle's clothes.

"Eyahhh… Amber… that was dirty… but… it sort of serves me right for not realizing what you were doing…" Alaylle slowly gets up to sit in a more proper way rather than the sprawl on the ground she was in from falling. Amber slowly rolls off of Alaylle's stomach as Alaylle stands up. Alaylle smiles happily at Amber while breathlessly saying, "Whew… let me catch my breath."

Amber looks up at Alaylle and nods.

"You know, Amber… somehow I think you'll be the one training me rather than me training you." Alaylle giggles.

Amber sweatdrops and nods.

A strange soft ticking sound starts coming from the east. The sound slowly glows louder and louder… and the ticking turns into a sort of "clacking" sound.

Alaylle inclines her head. "Say… Amber… do you hear that sound? It sure is getting loud…"

Amber looks up at Alaylle, looks towards the east, and then nods.

Alaylle closes her eyes for a moment. "It sounds like… that beetle thing I saw before I found you… only… this sound is a lot louder. What was that beetle called again?… Oh yeah! A Horn." She opens her eyes and turns towards the sound. Her eyes widen at what she sees.

A huge swarm of Horns is coming from the east. Not only that, but the Horns are viciously biting anything that gets in the swarm's way. Trees and plants are mercilessly being chopped down by the Horns. A few Ambernites can also be seen rolling away from the swarm.

Alaylle hops to her feet quickly. "Amber! Quickly! We have to run! Those Horns are biting everything in sight!"

Amber nods, but then halts as the sound of Horns starts coming from the north and south.

"Uh oh… that's not good… Umm… Oh! I know! I saw a bridge in the northwest! Let's try going that way!"

Amber nods again and quickly rolls in the northwest direction while Alaylle runs after her.

Alaylle looks back for a moment and sees the Ambernites confusingly trying to decide on a direction to retreat. "Ambernites! This way! Quickly!"

The Ambernites quickly orient on her voice and roll towards the northwest.

Alaylle and the Ambernites make it to the wooden bridge in the middle of Ambernite Field. Several Ambernites are already crossing over the bridge, but some have fallen onto their sides from their panic.

Alaylle quickly runs onto the bridge, picking up any Ambernites that have fallen and finishes crossing when the bridge onto the small island in the middle of Geffen River. Suddenly, the bridge connecting the island to the east part of Ambernite Field becomes loose and falls into the Geffen River.

"Whew… everyone alright?" Alaylle gently places the Ambernites she picked up onto the ground. The Ambernites nod slowly and Amber rolls up to Alaylle. "Aahh… thank goodness… you're alright, Amber!" Alaylle smiles happily. She then turns around. "Eep! The bridge is down!" Alaylle looks further away, to see the Horns making short work of the eastern support posts that once held the bridge up. "…I wonder why the Horns are so violent? My book said they were pretty docile…" Alaylle looks back to the Ambernites. "But at least lots of you escaped!" She walks over to the west part of the island and spots another bridge. "Well… at least we can leave the island… and the west part of Ambernite Field will be safe too!"

Alaylle sits down next to Amber and talks to her. "Still… I wonder why the Horns did that? But… Oh! I know! Let's take back your home! I'll help of course!"

Amber thinks for a moment and then nods.

Alaylle looks towards the other Ambernites. "What do you say?"

All the other Ambernites quickly nod.

"Alright! It's decided then! I'll help train you all!" Alaylle smiles happily.

"Only… uh… tomorrow… right now it's getting late, so I gotta get home before Mommy starts cooking!" Alaylle sweatdrops.

Amber looks worriedly towards the southeast.

"Huh? Oh… how will I get home? Don't worry! There's another path from Geffen to here other than the one over there! Plus… I have this!" Alaylle happily pulls out a Butterfly Wing.

Amber sighs with relief.

"Okay! So tomorrow, I'll meet you in West Ambernite Field, Amber! Make sure you gather everyone up, okay?" Alaylle makes a fist. "We'll take back your home!… Sorry… I always wanted to do that pose… Karian always does it…"

Amber sweatdrops at Alaylle's posing and starts to wonder if being trained by Alaylle is such a good idea.

End of Chapter 22  
---  
Chapter 23 Preview!

Alaylle: "Against an enemy of that number… there's only one option!"

Alaylle: "We have to overpower them!"

Alaylle: "With both tricks, power, and a little teamwork too!"

In the Next Chapter: "Thinking Outside the Cart"

Corin: "Just what are you doing, Alaylle?"  
---


	24. Thinking Outside the Cart

Chapter 23: "Thinking Outside the Cart"

Alaylle runs into Ambernite Field from the northwest entrance and is quickly greeted by a large swarm of Ambernites. "Good morning, everyone!"

Amber, and the rest of the Ambernites all look up at Alaylle.

"Today we'll work on your rolling and teamwork!" Alaylle smiles happily. "Since there are so many Horns… teamwork's the only real way we can fight well! First… let's see how well everyone rolls."

Alaylle picks up a stick off the ground and draws a line in front of the Ambernites. "Okay! Roll as much as you can, but don't tire yourself out all the way!"

All of the Ambernites quickly start rolling across the field, with Alaylle chasing after them. When an Ambernite tires out, Alaylle makes a mark on the ground with her stick. Once the last Ambernite tires out, Alaylle gathers all of the Ambernites together again.

"Hmm… everyone rolls really well! I've split you all into four teams based on how long you could roll for… Why? Well… when you roll, you're really vulnerable to strikes from the side, right?" Alaylle looks down at the Ambernites, who all nod. "Well… we're gonna practice rolling in rows, not only to protect your sides, but to keep the Ambernites at the ends of the row from losing their balance if they should get hit!" She looks back down at all the Ambernites. "But… before we do that… let's rest!"

Alaylle sits down next to Amber. "How are you doing, Amber?"

Amber goes into her shell and rolls back and forth.

"A little bit nervous, huh?"

Amber nods and looks at the other Ambernites.

"Oh! That's right! I should name everyone else! I can't go calling them without names!" Alaylle smiles happily.

All of the Ambernites sweatdrop at the thought of being named by Alaylle.

"Hee hee hee… I'll call you Alan, and you Albert… Ohh! I'll call you Amy!" Alaylle giggles as she starts naming all of the Ambernites names that start with "A".

---  
After several practice rolls…

"Okay! Apple, slow down just a little bit!" Alaylle runs after the rolling line of Ambernites. "Perfect! When we're going straight, keep it up just like that!" Alaylle smiles happily. "Eyaahh!" Alaylle trips on a discarded Ambernite shell and falls onto the grass.

The Ambernites turn around and roll towards Alaylle to see if she's okay.

Alaylle gets up slowly off the grass and dusts herself off. "Oh no… I'm fine! I just tripped on that Ambernite shell." She walks over to the shell, picks it up and looks it over. "Hmm…" Alaylle pockets the shell and turns back to the Ambernites. "Okay! Now let's practice turning while in a row!"

The Ambernites line up in their groups, and start rolling in a neat row.

"Group 1 and 3, turn left! Group 2 and 4, turn right!" Alaylle then winces.

The Ambernite rows have all scattered, and some Ambernites have bumped into each other.

"…Wonder why that happened… Oh! That's right! The Ambernites all have to roll at different speeds once they start turning to stay in a row!" Alaylle draws a circle on the ground with her stick. "Daddy explained this to me before… its like running a race in a circle… if you stay in the inner curve of the circle, you don't need to move as much to do a full circle. It's why the runners of a race in a circular track start in different places in the rows!"

Alaylle turns towards the Ambernites. "That means… the Ambernites that are more towards the direction you're turning have to either slow down… or the Ambernites that are more away from the direction you're turning have to speed up!"

The Ambernites think it over for a while, and then nod.

"Okay, then let's practice it!… Oops! It's getting late already!" Alaylle looks up at the sky and then back at the Ambernites. "Everyone, don't forget to practice!"

Alaylle waves goodbye happily to the Ambernites and runs off… only to trip on another discarded Ambernite shell. She dusts herself off and pockets that shell too. 'Hmm… maybe I should try taking some shells with me…' Alaylle thinks to herself for a moment and then nods, collecting any discarded shells she finds on her way back to Geffen.  
---  
After barely getting home in time to keep her mother from cooking, and finishing her nightly chores, Alaylle sits down at a table in the living room, examining an Ambernite shell.

"Hmm…" Alaylle opens up her monster encyclopedia and turns to a page about Ambernite shells. 'So the Ambernite only lives in the outermost part of the shell, huh?' She looks back at the shell in her hands.

Alaylle giggles and starts playfully rolling the shells across the living room floor. 'The shells roll well, though!' Alaylle's thoughts are interrupted when a pair of hands covers her eyes from behind.

"Heh heh heh… Guess who!"

Alaylle thinks for a moment, and then sniffs a bit. "I smell smoke on this person's hands, so… it must be Daddy!"

"Ha ha ha! That's right!" Corin uncovers his daughter's eyes and then sits down on his cart while looking at her. "Playing with Ambernite shells?"

Alaylle nods slowly after a soft giggle. "Hee hee hee… just a little. I'm really thinking about the Ambernite shells, not playing with them!"

"Well, don't strain yourself too much." Corin grins and ruffles Alaylle's hair.

"Kyaaaahh!" Alaylle pouts as she straightens her hair. "Oh, Daddy, you're so mean!" Alaylle then bursts into giggles.

Corin shakes his head with a smile, gets to his feet, and leaves his cart on the side of the entrance to the living room as he walks towards his workshop.

Alaylle watches her father leave the room and then looks back at his cart. 'Oh! That gives me an idea! It'll take a few days but… I think it'll work!'

---  
Alaylle walks into the northwest corner of Ambernite Field tugging along her father's cart. 'Eyaahh… this thing is so heavy… I don't know how Daddy can lug this around all day and not get tired…' Alaylle looks around quickly and calls out, "Everyone! I'm here!"

All of the Ambernites quickly roll towards Alaylle in a single row and stop right in front of her.

"Whaaaa!" Alaylle jumps up and down while clasping her hands together. "That was soooooo neat looking! Do it again?"

All of the Ambernites promptly fall onto the grass (and at the same time too!) from Alaylle's request.

"Okay, okay!" Alaylle giggles and softly whispers to herself, "Maybe later?" This time in a louder voice, "Alright! Today we'll take back your home from those Horns! First of all, we gotta get there, right? The bridge is broken so… the shortest way is to go through Geffen and enter your home from the south side. It's just… uhh… you know… we can't really have a trail of Ambernites going through Geffen out in the open… someone's gonna mistake you all for invading or something silly like that so…" Alaylle shuffles through the cart's things, pulls out a folded picnic cloth and unfolds it.

The Ambernites look at the cloth and sweatdrop.

"Huh? Oh no, my plan isn't to have a picnic!" Alaylle giggles. "Nuh uh! It's to use the cart to get you all through Geffen without any problems! Everyone, get in the cart! I'll cover the top with this cloth, and we should be fine!"

The Ambernites look at each other for a moment, and then nod.

Alaylle smiles happily and starts scooping up Ambernites by the armful and placing them in the cart.

Amber waits to be the last to be loaded into the cart and hops into Alaylle's arms instead of waiting to be scooped up.

"Eep! Oh… Amber! Huh? No need to thank me yet! Wait until we get your home back, okay?"

Amber nods vigorously once she is put in the cart with the rest of the Ambernites.

Alaylle places the cloth on top of the cart. "Okay! All set! Let's go!" She grabs the cart's handles and starts pulling the cart towards Geffen. "Eyaahah… Daddy, how in the world do you manage to do this all day?"

Alaylle carefully pulls the cart along the path to Geffen, through the north bridge leading to Geffen, and manages to get to Geffen's East Gate without too much difficulty, until…

"Alaylle, that sure looks heavy… do you need some help?" The Kapra girl at Geffen's East Gate watches Alaylle tug the cart up the stairs.

"Huh? Oh… no, I'm fine, really!" Alaylle sweatdrops.

"If you say so… whatcha doing with a cart, anyway?"

"Uhh… just… uhh… delivering some things, that's all!" Alaylle smiles awkwardly.

"You know, I could teleport you to Prontera instead of you lugging that thing all the way there."

"No!… uhhm, I mean… oh no, it's alright, really! I'm fine!"

"Well, alright… it looks like a nice way to exercise anyway"

"Hee hee hee… now that you mention it, it is! Oh wait… I'm not doing this for exercise… uhh… anyway! I'll see you later!" Alaylle awkwardly tries to pull the cart out of Geffen faster.

The Kapra girl blinks her eyes and watches Alaylle. "Well, that was… weird… it was almost like she was hiding something… but Alaylle hide something? That's like a Poring not wanting to eat…"

---  
Alaylle sits down on the grass just outside of Ambernite Field's south entrance. "Whew! I'm not doing that again! Everyone okay in there? Oh wait… Ambernites don't make sounds…" She lifts up the cloth and peeks inside the cart. All of the Ambernites look up at her. "Aww… that's sooo cute!" Alaylle smiles happily. "Ahh… now what was I gonna say… oh yeah! This cart… isn't just to get us to this place without being seen…" Alaylle winks at the Ambernites. "Here's my plan…" Alaylle leans into the cart and starts whispering…

---  
Alaylle walks into Ambernite Field from the south entrance and is greeted by a large swarm of Horns. She pulls her chain out of her left sleeve and whips the links forward. "Everyone, go! Let's take back your home!"

Three rows of Ambernites consisting of 10 Ambernites each come rolling from behind Alaylle, with one row on Alaylle's left and two on Alaylle's right.

The Horns panic at seeing that many Ambernites rolling towards them and scatter, making it all the more easy for the Ambernite rows to spread out and roll them over without any resistance or slow down. The Ambernite rows quickly turn back around and regroup near Alaylle after the Horns run.

"Everyone, get ready… they're gonna counterattack!"

Sure enough, the Horns come charging at Alaylle and the Ambernites in a wide column, too wide to roll through without slowing down from the front or the side.

Alaylle and the Ambernites both charge at the column, Alaylle carefully flipping the Horns over so that they can't counterattack and the Ambernites tackling any Horns that get near Alaylle. The column of Horns slows down at first, but soon there are far too many Horns for them to handle.

Alaylle frowns as several Ambernites take bites for her, but then brightens when she hears a rumbling from behind her. "They're finally ready! Everyone, get to side!"

Alaylle's father's cart comes rolling in from behind Alaylle and company and arrives on scene just as Alaylle and the Ambernites get to the side.

The Horns pause for a moment in disbelief as they watch the cart move on it's own towards them, and then panic when they see the cart suddenly turn and start to swing itself at them. Several Horns go flying into the air upon impact with the cart, and the remaining Horns run at seeing the rampaging cart.

Alaylle giggles and looks down at the wheels of the cart. "Finally got how to control it, huh you guys?"

The "wheels" of the cart are revealed to be Ambernite Shells… with Ambernites in them! The Ambernites peek out of their shells and nod.

Amber quickly nudges Alaylle and turns towards the north.

Alaylle turns in the direction that Amber is facing and is shocked at what she sees.

A huge red Horn with three mandibles rather than the usual two is lunging at the retreating Horns. The Horns all sweatdrop and reluctantly turn back towards Alaylle and the Ambernites, but don't attack, looking warily at the Ambernite Cart.

"Th-that isn't in my book…" Alaylle takes a step back and stares at the Tri-horn. "But… it looks like this is what caused the Horns to come here so…" Alaylle grips her chain and charges at the Tri-horn. The Ambernites roll after Alaylle, and the Ambernite Cart rolls off slowly, trying to pick up speed again.

The Tri-horn lunges at Alaylle, but she quickly sidesteps and tries to flip it over from the side. Several Ambernites roll straight at the Tri-horn in anticipation of the Tri-Horn flipping over. Unfortunately, the Tri-horn is far too massive to be even tipped a bit from Alaylle's chain and quickly grabs one of the charging Ambernites with its triple pincers. The Tri-horn grips the Ambernite tightly and the shell starts to crack from the pressure.

Alaylle quickly strikes the Tri-horn's lower left mandible with her chain and the Tri-horn's mandibles quickly separate in pain. "Aaahh! That actually worked! Everyone, the mouth! That's where we can hit!"

The Tri-horn quickly turns towards Alaylle and lunges at her again, only to miss as Alaylle sidesteps the repeat attack. The Tri-horn then suddenly swings it's closed mandibles at Alaylle. Alaylle quickly ducks the strike and hits the two bottom mandibles with her chain while she's ducking. The lower-left mandible goes flying off of the Tri-horn, leaving it with its single upper mandible and a lower-right mandible. The Tri-horn shrieks at losing a mandible and quickly lunges at the passive Horns nearby.

The Horns sweatdrop and quickly start attacking the Ambernites. The Ambernites quickly get back into their rows and start combating the few Horns that attack them.

Meanwhile, Alaylle is cautiously watching the Tri-horn, and the Tri-horn is watching Alaylle. The two stare at each other, waiting for one to make a move… and then the Tri-horn suddenly shrieks in pain. Amber has sneakily rolled in from behind the Tri-horn and has tackled off its bottom right mandible.

The Horns stop for a moment, and turn at the Tri-horn, but the Tri-horn quickly stabs at the ground with its single mandible. The Horns sweatdrop at the Tri-horn's display and quickly go back to attacking the Ambernites.

The Tri-horn has had enough of waiting and charges straight at Alaylle with its mandible raised high. It stabs at the ground where Alaylle is. Alaylle scrambles out of the way of the stab, but doesn't see the Tri-horn quickly turn and hit Alaylle with its massive body. Alaylle falls onto the ground and skids on the grass from the hit. She slowly sits up and then starts to cry.

The Tri-horn, satisfied that Alaylle doesn't want to fight anymore, turns its attention towards Amber. Amber is quickly rolling in circles around the Tri-horn, and the Tri-horn is simply standing still with its mandible ready to stab.

Amber takes a wide turn from behind the Tri-horn and comes straight at the Tri-horn's face. The Tri-horn just stands it's ground and watches. Amber pushes herself up while rolling at the Tri-horn, causing her to jump at the high mandible. The Tri-horn simply turns when it notices the Ambernite in the air and Amber's strike bounces harmlessly off the Tri-horn's carapace.

As Amber falls from her failed attack, the Tri-horn quickly runs towards where Amber will land and readies a stab. As soon as Amber lands, she tries to start rolling forward, but the Tri-horn quickly stabs its mandible right in front of Amber, killing her momentum while her rolling is still slow. Amber tries to roll in reverse, but is stopped exactly the same way. Amber desperately tries to get away, but the Tri-horn simply stabs in the way. With her momentum completely halted, the Tri-horn gets ready to stab the Ambernite.

The Tri-horn stops when it hears a rumbling sound. It looks left and right, trying to figure out where the sound is coming from. Amber quickly rolls away during the distraction and over to Alaylle. All of the Horns battling the Ambernites halt, sweatdrop, and immediately start to panic at that sound. The Ambernite Cart finally arrives on the scene again with plenty of momentum behind it… and rolls straight towards the Tri-horn. The cart quickly swings at the Tri-horn's face, knocking off its last mandible.

The Tri-horn shrieks as it loses it's last mandible, and once again, all the Horns stop and turn towards it. The Tri-horn sweatdrops as it's completely weaponless. All of the Horns notice this and start looking angry at the Tri-horn. They all suddenly charge the Tri-horn and start biting it with their mandibles. The Tri-horn panics and runs away from the Horns, only to meet a row of Ambernites rolling straight towards it. The Ambernite row strikes the Tri-horn head on, and flips it over. The Ambernites and Horns relentlessly attack the Tri-horn as it tries to thrash itself back onto its feet. The Ambernites and Horns then suddenly stop attacking the Tri-horn and get as far away from it as they can. The Tri-horn manages to flip itself back right side up only to see the business end of the Ambernite Cart meet it's face.

Alaylle and Amber watch the Tri-horn fly up high into the sky and both watch its path in the sky as it falls onto an adjacent mountain range in Mt. Mjolnir. "…Wow… good hit…" Amber looks over at Alaylle, and Alaylle bursts into giggles. The Ambernites, Horns, and the Ambernite Cart come up to Alaylle as she gets back to her feet. She looks at the Horns and notices that they aren't fighting the Ambernites anymore. "Aahh… looks like everything's back to normal now, huh?"

Alaylle shuffles in the cart and gets out several Ambernite shells and places them in front of the "wheels" of the cart. The Ambernites crawl out of the shell wheels and into their usual shells.

"But… it's not over yet! We have to do the usual thing!" Alaylle smiles happily.

The Ambernites all simultaneously sweatdrop.

"Nuh uh uh! You have to do it! Karian, Kaori, and me have done it since we were kids! You can't break this tradition, you know!"

Alaylle bends down and picks up Amber. "Just like we practiced! All together!"

The Ambernites quickly form a small pyramid while Alaylle stands in front of it, smiles, and holds out Amber. "Victory Pose!"

The Horns all stare at Alaylle and the Ambernites starry-eyed.

"Huh? Oh, alright, I'll help you all make one too!" Alaylle smiles happily as she sets Amber down. "But… uhh… I can't help but feel like I'm forgetting something…" Alaylle taps the top of her head with her pointer finger.

---  
Talien sits at the base of a tree near the broken bridge of Ambernite Field sipping some grape juice from a straw from a glass shaped like a bunch of grapes. "Heh, now this is the life."

He adjusts his sunglasses and leans against the tree trunk while watching the bots try to cross a nonexistent bridge. The bots walk in mid-air for a moment, and then fall straight into the Geffen River to be carried off to parts unknown.

"It's not a giant pool of lava, but it works."

End of Chapter 23  
---  
Chapter 24 Preview!

Father Renauld: "Alaylle… I'm sorry…"

Alaylle: "…"

Corin: "I can't stand to see Alaylle like this!"

In the Next Chapter: "Finding Confidence"

Neyrilla: "Corin! Stop… let her decide on her own…"  
---


	25. Finding Confidence

Chapter 24: "Finding Confidence"

"Kyaaa… Finally home! This thing is just too heavy to pull and push around all day!" Alaylle pushes the cart off to the side as she opens the front door to her house. She then pulls the cart into her house and parks it off to the side in an alcove reserved for Corin's cart. "I'm home!"

The entrance to Alaylle's house is a small room about 2 meters long and 4 meters wide made with the purpose of welcoming people into the house. Off to the right side is a long white and blue cushioned chair, in which several pairs of shoes are resting underneath. Above the chair is a small wooden sign shaped like a foot hanging from the ceiling with 'Please remove footwear!' written in large, bold, block letters. Off to the right side of the room is a little alcove made with walls for storing Corin's cart. In the middle of the room is a blue carpet embroidered with daisies. Straight ahead from the front door is a doorway that leads to the living room.

Alaylle sits down on the chair and slips off her shoes. Fast footsteps are heard, and Alaylle looks up to see her father running towards her. "Uhhm… Daddy? Where's the fire?" Alaylle blinks her eyes and then gasps. "Oh no, did Mommy start cooking already?"

Corin shakes his head. "No no no! Thank heavens no!" He grins and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly, "I was just wondering if you've seen my cart?"

"Oh! Sorry! I was borrowing it! I hope I didn't cause any trouble…"

"Eh? No… it's not any trouble. I just finished installing this new furnace in my workshop and was thinking about grabbing my cart and getting some iron."

Corin walks over to the alcove storing his cart and then looks at the cart. "Hmm… say… Alaylle… what were you doing with this thing? It looks a bit… worn?"

Alaylle looks away a bit awkwardly. "Uhmm… I was… sort of using it as a weapon…"

"A weapon!" Corin kneels down and inspects his cart from top to bottom. "A cart… a weapon?"

Alaylle winces. "I'm sorry Daddy!"

"Sorry? No need to be sorry Alaylle! It's an awesome idea! I'm surprised no one thought of it before!" Corin closely inspects his cart. "Whoa! You redesigned the back wheels so that they can rotate directions! Wait till the guys at the Merchant Guild see this! They'll go nuts!" Corin grins widely and pulls out his cart from the alcove. "Eh?" Corin blinks his eyes and pushes the cart back and forth a bit. "Alaylle, did you put something in here? It's a lot heavier than when I last used it."

Alaylle is still blushing from her father's compliments. "Uhh… I don't think so…"

Corin pulls his cart out of the alcove and looks inside. "Whoaaaaaa! There's a ton of iron ore in here!"

Alaylle puts her pointer finger near her mouth as she thinks… "Th-there is? The Ambernites must've left it in there…"

"This is GREAT! Three awesome things happening in one day!" Corin pauses and his shoulders slump. Under his breath he mutters, "Aww great… now I'm worried about how tomorrow is gonna be after this…" He then quickly shrugs, and pulls his cart towards the living room. "Ahh, who cares? To the workshop!"

Alaylle looks angrily at her father. "Nuh uh uh! Daddy! No cart on my carpet!"

Corin pauses for a minute, then quickly picks up his cart with his hands and holds it above his head. "Weeeeeeee!"

Alaylle just quietly watches her father in shock… "He… he never did that before…" She slowly shakes her head. "Daddy… you're such a goofball…"

---  
After dinner, Neyrilla quietly waters the plants in her greenhouse with a watering can shaped like a Marin.

Neyrilla's greenhouse is a long room filled with about a dozen rows of potted plants from all around Midgard. Lamps hung above the plants powered by Great Natures shine plenty of nutrient rich mana down onto the plants. There is a door in the northeast corner of the room that leads out to the hallway, and a door in the southeast that leads outside. In the east side of the room there is a nook where Neyrilla keeps a clean desk and chair set facing the entrance of the nook, serving as a small office. On the north and south sides of the nook, there are bookcases filled with books.

Neyrilla finishes watering her plants and heads to her desk. She places the Marin watering can so that the face of the Marin faces the entrance to the nook. She looks down at her latest book, 'Plants of Morroc' and quietly starts reading. Two soft clicks come from the direction of the backdoor. Neyrilla quietly puts a bookmark into her book, closes it, and looks up to see a shadowy figure wearing a Sakkat and holding the rim by pinching it.

Neyrilla shakes her head. "What's with the Sakkat?"

The shadowy figure sweatdrops. "It improves my image… don't you think so?"

"The only thing it improves is your chance of it brushing up against something, making noise, and getting caught."

The shadowy figure whines, "But… but… I like it! It makes me look awesome!"

Neyrilla shakes her head with a soft smile. "Anyway… your report, please."

The shadowy figure nods. "I followed Alaylle, as per your instructions. She trained and fought with the Ambernites against the Horns, and led them quite effectively. She is still very unaccustomed to combat, and appears have great difficulty handling getting hit. She also seems to have… created a cart that the Ambernites used as a weapon."

Neyrilla nods slowly. "Yes… Corin was ranting and raving about that… the last I checked, he was playing with it in his workshop."

The shadowy figure tries his best to stifle a snicker, and then continues. "The cause of the sudden migration appears to have been a mutated Horn… Alaylle and the Ambernites successfully repelled it, and the Horn migration appears to have stopped."

Neyrilla quietly nods. "About that Horn…"

"Yes… it flew quite the distance after the Ambernite Cart hit it… but my troops managed to capture it and transport it to Juno."

The shadowy figure places a thick book made up of paper sheets bound by three metal rings. "Here is the 33 page report of the analysis of the mutant Horn."

Neyrilla makes a frowning ahem and looks back up at the figure after glancing at the thick report.

The shadowy figure grins slightly and then places a stapled 2-page report on top of the thick book. "As customary, here is my summary of the results."

Neyrilla picks up the summary and quickly leafs through it, glancing back up at the figure after she finishes.

"The mutant Horn seems to have been exposed to an extremely high amount of growth hormones, and especially large doses of adrenaline. From its current state of deterioration, it will die of stress from adrenaline in approximately 164 hours. From its given lifespan, it is my opinion that this Horn was manufactured as a weapon, with a limit on its lifespan imposed for testing purposes. The bio-alchemists of Juno are keeping it alive as long as possible for further observation."

Neyrilla quietly nods. "Thank you for your report… keep me updated… dismissed."

The shadowy figure nods and quietly exits.

Neyrilla looks up at the ceiling and quietly whispers, "Is it happening again? After all these years… After all I've done to try to prevent it from occurring again… I wanted Alaylle to grow up without this happening, but now… Now is the time to prepare."

Neyrilla glances down at the thick report on her desk, moves the botany book onto the side and starts reading the report.

---  
After an uneventful morning, (the explosions coming from Corin's workshop count as "normal") Alaylle happily walks to the Prontera Church to do her usual pastime: getting jumped by Father Renauld, and giving the church a nice cleaning. Upon entering the church, Alaylle flinches and waits for Father Renauld to jump out of nowhere and scare her silly. Alaylle blinks her eyes, as the jump doesn't come. She quickly starts searching around her, looking for Father Renauld. "Father Renauld? Where are you hiding this time?"

Alaylle shrugs and heads towards the main altar of Prontera Church. Standing in front of the altar is an unhappy looking Father Renauld talking to Father Maruesis.

Father Renauld slowly turns from Father Maruesis and over to Alaylle. "Alaylle… darn it… why did you have to come today…" He looks away from Alaylle.

Father Maruesis turns towards Alaylle and inclines his head. "Alaylle is it? Could you please demonstrate your Heal spell?"

"I…" Alaylle sighs. "I'll try…" Alaylle closes her eyes and tries to will a healing spell into happening… but nothing happens. Alaylle opens her eyes and shakes her head. "I can't do it…"

Father Maruesis sighs and shakes his head. "I'm sorry Alaylle, but the higher Priests have told us that any Acolytes that lack magic are to be removed from membership…"

"I… I see…" Alaylle glances down at the ground and slowly walks out of the church.

Father Renauld turns to Father Maruesis once Alaylle has left. "This isn't right! Just because it's expected that the demand for priests will increase by 4 times thanks to the King recruiting adventurers… Is no reason to remove people that can't use magic! This… this is just to line the High Priest's coffers with gold!"

Father Maruesis nods. "I'll do what I can… but… please comfort that girl… she looked… devastated."

---  
Alaylle quietly walks into her house staring down at the floor the whole time. She walks past her mother and father sitting down on a couch and talking in the living room and towards the stairs leading upstairs.

Neyrilla notices Alaylle's bad mood and nudges Corin. She walks to catch up with Alaylle. "Alaylle? What's wrong?"

Alaylle stops walking and turns towards her mother. "I'm not an Acolyte anymore…" She quickly turns away and slowly goes up the stairs. "Please… could I be alone for a while?"

Neyrilla and Corin both quietly watch Alaylle head up the stairs.

Corin moves as if to chase after Alaylle, but Neyrilla quickly stops him. "Corin… leave her alone… the way Alaylle is… when she wants to talk, she'll come to us."

Corin winces, "But… but…" He sighs, and then nods. "You're right… but… I can't stand her looking like that and feeling like that…"

Neyrilla nods slowly. "It's hurting me too… but… life is so full of things in which people have no choice… Many "choices" aren't them at all, but illusions, in which people delude themselves into thinking them as that. This is one choice that is for real… she has to decide whether or not to continue with what she is doing…" She softly hugs Corin. "This is what I believe being a parent is about… giving your child all the choices that you can possibly give them so that they can grow."

Corin sighs softly, "It still feels horrible…"

Neyrilla nods, "I know… but… have a little trust in your daughter… and… perhaps you could show your support in another way?"

Corin glances at Neyrilla, and then smiles broadly. "I… yes! Eh heh heh… I know what to do!" He nods and rushes off to his workshop.

Neyrilla glances upstairs. "If you can get past this… maybe I can help a little with your confidence, Alaylle…"

---  
Alaylle quietly stares at her pillow while lying down on her stomach on her bed. She stares intently at the pillow, in deep thought… yet… thinking about nothing. After a while, she looks around her room, with her gaze focusing on a few things. An Ambernite shell, a Rocker's violin… a slight smile cracks from her lips. She then notices a picture hung on the wall near her bed. A picture of her, Karian and Kaori doing a victory pose. Karian is on her right side, Kaori is on her left side, with both of them are in front of her. All three of them are smiling and putting moose antlers on their heads using open palms and the thumbs to connect the "antlers" to their heads. Alaylle giggles softly and takes a small nap on her bed.

Corin clears a long underused portion of his workshop next to the new furnace he recently installed. "Haven't used these things since… I made that…" He brings his cart full of newly refined steel over to the furnace. Corin bends over and picks up an old hammer left near the furnace. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Eh heh heh…" He dusts off a glistening, golden-colored anvil near the furnace as well. "How have the years been to you? Good I hope! Hope you got a good rest, 'cause it's time to work overtime again!"

Neyrilla looks up and smiles at the sound of pounding coming from Corin's workshop. "Ah… that's a sound I haven't heard in a long time… it certainly beats the explosions that occur there." She looks back down at her desk and continues to write a letter on a piece of paper. 'Just a bit more…'

---  
Corin and Neyrilla both bump into each other in the hallway as Corin exits his workshop and Neyrilla exits her greenhouse. They both say at the same time, "Do you smell that?"

Neyrilla rolls her eyes happily while Corin laughs.

Neyrilla pokes her husband in the side to get him to stop laughing. "I smell… something very spicy… it is around that time where Alaylle prepares dinner, isn't it?"

Corin manages to stifle his laughter and nods. "It smells like Morrocan Chili…"

Both quickly make their way to the kitchen where they see Alaylle happily cooking something in several pots on the stove. Alaylle turns to both of them with a happy smile. "Uhm… it'll be done in about half an hour… don't worry! I made mine separate!"

Neyrilla nods happily and drags Corin out of the kitchen. "See? Trust in your daughter, Corin. She wouldn't be making her favorite food if she was in a bad mood."

Corin sighs in relief. "I'm glad… that smile she had… eh heh heh… it's just as you said."

"Yes… but now… let's give her a bit of encouragement, in our own little ways."

"Yeah!"

Neyrilla walks back into the kitchen as Corin runs back to his workshop. "Alaylle? In a week, we'll be heading to our annual visit to Payon as usual, but… this time… how about you come along?"

Alaylle blinks her eyes and then smiles happily. "Wow! I get to go with you and Daddy this time? Okay! I can't wait!" She takes a taste of the chili she's making straight from the pot. "Hmm… not bad! But… maybe a bit more hot…"

Neyrilla smiles softly. "That isn't ours, right?"

Alaylle nods happily. "Don't worry! I'm only making mine really really spicy!"

End of Chapter 24  
---  
Chapter 25 Preview!

Alaylle: "Just because I can't use magic doesn't mean I'm worthless!"

: "Ha! I'll show you how much worth you have!"

In the Next Chapter: "Fighting for Acceptance"

Alaylle: "Nuh uh! I'll be the one showing you!"  
---


	26. Fighting for Acceptance

Chapter 25: "Fighting for Acceptance"

Alaylle happily walks into Prontera Church and looks around quickly. Spotting Father Renauld sitting on one of the many long benches, Alaylle quietly sneaks up on him, making sure not to get spotted. Once she is right behind Father Renauld, Alaylle quickly covers his eyes with her hands. "Guess who!"

"Gaahhh!" Father Renauld panics a bit and then realizes that he isn't going to be going anywhere until he answers. "Hmm… Sister Nun?"

Alaylle uncovers Father Renauld's eyes. "Eeeehhhh? Sister Nun? I don't sound like Sister Nun at all!"

Father Renauld turns his head towards Alaylle. "Ah! Alaylle! I didn't expect you to be back here."

Alaylle nods happily. "Yup! I'm here to clean!"

Father Renauld stands up quickly and turns towards Alaylle completely. "What! Clean?"

"Uh huh! Just because I'm not an acolyte doesn't mean I can't clean, right?"

"I-I see… we should arrange some sort of paym-"

"Nuh uh! I'm not going to let you pay me!" Alaylle giggles. "Oh! But… uhh… I'm going to Payon tomorrow, so… I hope the place doesn't get too messy until I get back!"

---

"Kyaaahhh… I almost forgot about dinner tonight!" Alaylle runs and weaves around people as she makes her way to the produce and meat market in the southwest corner of Prontera. She skids to a halt right in front of Colette's usual stand. "Hello Colette! One of the usual!"

Colette grins at Alaylle. "A little late today, huh Alaylle?" She leans on the counter of her stand. "I sent it already, so you don't need to worry."

"What? Oh… thank goodness…" Alaylle sighs with relief.

"Hee hee hee… but in exchange… you have to tell me a piece of gossip!"

"Ehh? But I'm not the type to… ohhh… alright… let me see…" Alaylle taps her chin. "Oh! I'm going to Payon tomorrow with my Mommy and Daddy!"

"Oh? Really? Usually you stay home when they go on a trip… how strange! But… good for you, Alaylle! It's good to travel around to new places and all."

"Ahh… umm… Colette? Got any gossip on Karian or Kaori? I haven't seen them in a while…"

"Hmm… Karian… from what I've heard, she's north of Prontera practicing her magic on those centipede and spider things… I forget their names… Kaori… she's been learning how to use a bow and arrow from your mother."

"Eehh? I didn't know that!"

Colette shrugs. "She wanted to learn to use the sword like your mother does, but… your mother would have none of it… and anyway… your mother found out that Kaori is pretty good with a bow too."

Alaylle blinks her eyes. "Wow… Colette, you found out that my Mommy uses a sword? I didn't even know that until recently…"

Colette grins. "My information network is huge! I even know that you bought red mushrooms for some reason in Geffen a while ago!"

"Wow… that's kinda creepy, Colette." Alaylle sweatdrops and giggles nervously. "Anything else you've heard about me?"

"Nuh uh… why? Got anything new to gossip about!" Colette leans forward.

"Uhh… no… nothing! Umm… I'd better get going! See you later, Colette!" Alaylle waves goodbye happily to Colette as she rushes off home.

Colette cups her hands around her mouth as if to make a loudspeaker. "Hey! Make sure you come talk to me when you get back! I wanna hear stories about Payon when you get back!"

---

"Aahh! That should do it!" Alaylle smiles happily as she finishes packing. "Oh! Wait! I almost forgot my chain!" Alaylle quickly looks around her room. "That's strange… I thought it was here somewhere… I'll try asking Daddy and Mommy…" Alaylle exits her room, heads downstairs, and down the hall to her father's workshop. Alaylle knocks on the door and calls out, "Daddy? Are you in there?"

"Yeah! I'm in here… Daaahhhhh!" A loud explosion is heard from the other side of the door.

Alaylle rolls her eyes with a soft giggle and waits for her father to tell her to come in.

Corin whimpers after about a minute of silence and says squeakily, "Ow ow ow… okay… its not locked… come on in, Alaylle."

Alaylle opens the door slightly and notes the gray smoke pouring out. She shakes her head slightly and enters the workshop.

Corin grins sheepishly while wiping soot off his face with a clean cloth. "Eh heh heh… sorry about that, Alaylle. Was there something you wanted to talk about?"

"Umm… I didn't cause that explosion by interrupting, did I?"

"No no no! Don't worry about that!" Corin rubs the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Oh… whew… uhm… I was wondering if you knew where my chain went?"

Corin grins widely. "I was hoping you'd ask that!" He quickly makes his way to a corner of his workshop and walks back to Alaylle proudly holding a chain in his hands. "Here you go, Alaylle!"

Alaylle takes the chain and looks at it. "Daddy… this isn't my chain…"

Corin shakes his head and starts fiddling with his hands and making sideways hand gestures. "Well… it is your chain and it sort of isn't your chain. I used the excellent metal that you brought home from the Ambernites and made a chain from that, using your chain as a template! You see chains weren't used as weapons until recently, so… I didn't quite know what to do to make one… and made quite a few faulty ones…" Corin scratches the back of his neck and smiles. "But! I made one really great chain! And this is it!"

"Daddy… thank you!" Alaylle smiles happily and hugs her father.

Corin hugs Alaylle back and grins. "Eh heh… anytime, Alaylle."

Alaylle disengages from her father, and then takes a few swings with her new chain.

Corin startles a bit. "Oi oi… Hold on a moment, Alaylle. I almost forgot to tell you something! That chain is a special chain! Take a good look at it!"

Alaylle stops swinging the chain around and looks carefully at the chain. The chain is just like any ordinary chain that would normally be bought at the Prontera Church, except for a few modifications. There are a few more links on the chain than usual, and on the handle, where the links of the chain attach to the handle, is a metal ring with a small red heart in it. "Hmm… the chain's a bit longer… and… there's this little heart thing on the handle…"

"That's my daughter for you! Such good eyes! Just have to be reminded to use them!" Corin grins and then nods. "You're exactly right! But do you know what the heart is there for?"

Alaylle shakes her head.

"When you touch the heart, the chain will burst into fire!"

Alaylle looks at Corin to check if he's joking. She then touches the heart on the handle while giving the chain a swing. The links of the chain burn with fire as Alaylle swings the chain. "Whaaaa! You weren't joking!"

"Yup! Oh, and if there's any contact with the links when you touch the heart, those links won't fire up… it's a little safety thing so that you can grasp the chain without worrying about burning yourself!"

"Wow… thank you Daddy! Does this chain have a name?"

Corin shakes his head. "I don't believe in naming my weapons… I prefer to think of as the user defining the weapon, not the weapon defining the user… but if you're going to call it anything, call it a Fire Chain."

Alaylle giggles. "Daddy! That's not true! You give goofy names to your inventions all the time!"

Corin bursts out laughing. "Hey hey! That and this are two completely different things! Oh! Wait… I almost forgot to give this to you! Made it just for you, along with your chain!" Corin goes back into the same corner of his workshop and brings Alaylle a buckler with the spike on top of the buckler missing. "While I made this, I thought the spike wasn't your style, so I didn't put one on top."

Alaylle picks up the buckler and blinks her eyes quickly. "Looks heavier than it actually is, huh?"

Corin grins and nods. "Made the inside a bit more hollowed out and lighter so that you wouldn't be forced to lug it around with your back arched." He winks at Alaylle.

"Thank you so much, Daddy!"

"Heh… don't thank me just yet! Learn to use 'em first! The departure time is at 9, so… you'd better finish your packing soon!"

"A-ah! Right!" Alaylle quickly gathers the chain and buckler up and runs out of the workshop.

Corin smiles and shakes his head as he watches Alaylle run off. He glances over at a clock and groans. "It's this time already?" He sighs and pokes what appears to be a metal ring box with several pipes sticking out of the top. "I guess this'll have to wait until I come back…"

---

Neyrilla and Corin quietly wait outside of their house, their bags placed in Corin's cart. Alaylle comes running out of the door tugging a bag and looking frantic. "I'm sorry-I'm sorry-I'm sorry! I'm sorry for being late!"

Neyrilla glances over at Alaylle and then at the bag she's tugging. "Oh no. You're not late, dear. We're just early, that's all. Packed enough things, I see."

"Y-yes… I didn't quite know what to pack so…"

Corin grins and points to his cart. "Don't worry about it! Just toss it in and we're off!"

Alaylle flings her bag into the cart and walks with her parents to a Kafra. "So… umm… just what do you do at Payon, anyway?"

Neyrilla smiles softly while Corin grins widely. "Heh, you'll find out!"

Neyrilla quietly hands a sack of zeny to the Kapra. "Three to Payon please…"

---

"Whaaaaa! It's so cool! It's so moist! It's so… so… green!" Alaylle turns her head quickly to take in Payon. "What neat buildings! Oh! So many trees! Whaaaa…" She squirms and darts all around, trying to take it all in.

Neyrilla has a firm grip on Alaylle's ponytail and calmly leads Alaylle and Corin to the west side of Payon. "Alaylle, you can sightsee later on, okay? For now, we should at least get to the place we're going to stay." She stops for a moment and looks around.

"Hmm?" Alaylle looks up at her mother.

"Aahh… the buildings that the Kingdom of Rune-Midgarts are constructing are looking quite nice… Although… why would Prontera buy parcels of land all around Rune-Midgard and make these virtual castles? I just don't see any point in it…" She looks down at Alaylle. "Oh, don't worry about it Alaylle, I'm sure it's nothing." Neyrilla thinks to herself, 'At least for now…'

"Mommy, are we near where we're staying?"

"Oh yes… it's just a bit more north-east of here…"

---

"Whaaaaaaaaa! Th-this is where we're staying!" Alaylle stares up at the Payon-style castle in front of her. She looks at the tall walls surrounding the castle, the gate, the wide open courtyard, and then at the huge castle in front of her.

Neyrilla inclines her head and smiles softly at Alaylle. "Yes… although I do admit… it is quite impressive, isn't it?"

Corin shrugs his shoulders while looking up at the tall building. "Get used to seeing it a lot, Alaylle… you'll be coming with us every year from now on, after all."

"Waiii! Really?"

Neyrilla nods her head slowly. "Yes really… now… let's head in… we need to check-in…"

---

Alaylle sits on a cushioned couch in the entrance room of the building. Neyrilla and Corin are quietly talking with the receptionist at the desk. Alaylle looks up and around the room… White walls decorated with landscapes, tall ceiling, a chandelier, and a huge red carpet covers the floor. Several other cushioned red couches are arranged in the outer edges of the room, with other people sitting on them while they wait to check in as well. 'This room… is as big as the first floor of my house! I had no idea they made rooms this big…'

Neyrilla and Corin finish talking to the receptionist and walk over to Alaylle. Neyrilla smiles softly at Alaylle. "Alaylle? Our bags have been brought up to our rooms, but… your father and I have to do some business before we go up. Could you wait here for us?"

"A-ahh… yeah… I'll be okay!" Alaylle rests her hands in her lap.

Corin rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "Sorry about this, Alaylle… some business just came up all of a sudden."

---

Neyrilla and Corin quietly enter a meeting room with a circular table surrounded by chairs. Already seated at the table is a red spiky haired wizard with spectacles, reading a book. Next to him is a sage with the same red hair, except his is combed neatly. They often stop reading for a moment and just as often argue heatedly-and then quickly go back to reading. Next to him an acolyte with long blue hair and glasses sits, looking bored. Just next to her is a red haired girl with her hair done in braids and the hair falling in front of her ears, with the braids falling onto her shoulders. She's dressed as an alchemist with large, round spectacles and is looking impatient. Two merchants are next to her, one blond haired, and one with white hair and both appear to be balancing some books. Next to them is an assassin wearing a sakkat and sunglasses, and two empty chairs, completing the circle of nine chairs.

All of the people already seated look up at them as they enter and quickly stop their assorted activities. The assassin is the first to speak up at the two enter and grins. "About time you two came! We've been waiting here a while!"

Corin grins right back at the assassin. "What's with the sunglasses, Patrick? Got a hangover?"

"What? No! They make me look awesome, don't they? All mysterious and cool!"

Neyrilla smiles softly and shakes her head. "Again with the appearance thing, Patrick? Anything to look 'cool', huh?" Neyrilla turns towards the center of the table and becomes serious. "Glad everyone could make it… well… almost…" She gestures over to the blue haired acolyte. "Everyone, this is Ann… she's subbing in for Midori."

Patrick glances over at Neyrilla. "Hey… what's so important that Midori gets to skip out on a meeting?"

"She's investigating and divining any activity that the demons and monsters are planning."

Patrick taps the top of his sakkat and says jokingly. "And you didn't send me? I'm hurt…"

Corin grins and shakes his head. "Oh, don't worry, you'll get your precious assignment soon enough."

"Ahem." Neyrilla shakes her head with a small smile. "If you two are done… The first object of business has to do with my daughter. I know this is irregular, but I wish to have her join the clan. And… I have sent you all letters asking your permission. And so… all agreed?"

The red-haired wizard grins. "If it was anyone other than Alaylle, no… but since it is… yes."

"Don't know much about her, but she seems to be fine… yes." The red-haired sage shrugs his shoulders.

The red-haired alchemist idly fiddles with her braids. "If she's anything like her father, sure!"

The white-haired merchant nods. "She seems to have the right type of mind for it."

The blonde-haired merchant shrugs. "Seems like a decent person… let her through."

Patrick grins. "From what I've seen… can't wait to see what her niche is."

Corin smiles widely. "You know my answer already. Send her through!"

Ann frowns thoughtfully. "I… I can't approve of this. I might just be standing in for the person that's supposed to be here, but…" She takes out a stack of papers. "This Alaylle girl… doesn't seem to have any magical ability at all… and she was stripped of her Acolyte status… she seems to be completely without worth to our clan… therefore… I can't just let her through." She gestures at the papers. "Here is my objection."

Corin raises an eyebrow and gestures for the papers. Ann quietly pushes the stack to him and Corin slips on a pair of reading glasses and examines the papers. "Hmm… all the forms are filled out appropriately." He glances back at Ann. "However, there are enough votes already to push her throu-"

Ann quickly pulls out another form and pushes it over to Corin. "Then I challenge her!"

Corin blinks his eyes and takes a look at the form. "Hmm… did your homework I see… The measure is indeed halted. Although…" Corin grins. "Alaylle is in the waiting room, so this won't delay the decision by much." He gestures over to Neyrilla. "Neyrilla will be the judge."

"What! But she's her mother! She has a conflict of interest!"

Corin shakes his head. "On the contrary, you are the challenger and she is the challenged. Not only that…" Corin grins. "I think Neyrilla will be far more critical on Alaylle than you will be."

"F-fine! I'll go to the waiting room right now!" Ann quickly gets up and leaves the room.

Neyrilla calmly gets up from her chair and leaves the room, following Ann.

Corin, Patrick and everyone else in the room get up from their seats as well.

Corin blinks his eyes. "You all are going to watch as well?"

They all nod.

Patrick grins. "Why not? Once in a while it's fun to watch someone get completely owned."

---

Ann bursts into the reception room and runs over to Alaylle, and points at her. "You! I challenge you!"

Alaylle does the sensible thing anyone would do when someone comes out of nowhere and suddenly says such a thing: she blinks her eyes and looks confused. "Huh? Me?"

"Yes, you!"

"Me?"

"Yes you!"

"Me?"

Ann screams out, "YES YOU!"

Alaylle just blinks her eyes. "Me?"

Meanwhile, Neyrilla and company have already entered the room and are sweatdropping at the exchange.

Neyrilla quietly walks over to the two and shakes her head. "Ann, I'm afraid you need to be a bit more descriptive… Alaylle doesn't know what this is about, after all." She happily looks over at Alaylle. "Alaylle, this girl wants to see how well you can fight… could you spar against her? Just like we did at Grey's place?"

Alaylle picks around in her left sleeve pocket and takes out her chain. "Umm… okay!" She looks around and then startles. "Wait, here?"

Neyrilla nods quietly in response.

"Well… okay… I hope I don't break anything…" Alaylle hops to her feet.

Neyrilla leads Alaylle and Ann to the center of the room. She glances over at Alaylle and Ann. Alaylle bows towards Ann and then looks a bit awkward holding her chain… while Ann looks mad. 'Wonder why she's so angry?' "Fight until one is disabled or surrenders… begin whenever you wish…"

Ann wastes no time and whips out a mace. She charges at Alaylle with her mace lifted high, screaming all the way. Alaylle inclines her head at the scream, turns around and runs away. Ann chases after Alaylle, still screaming and trying to get within striking range with her mace, while Alaylle leads her on a merry chase around the room. Ann slowly starts to slow down and tire out from all of the running and screaming, and soon stops, leans forward, rests her hands on her knees and catches her breath. "Q-quit… runn-"

Alaylle dashes at Ann and quickly strikes her in her left shoulder, her left side, and then her stomach, sending Ann back onto her bottom onto the floor.

"Ouuuch! That was a dirty trick!" Ann shouts as she gets up off the floor.

"No it wasn't… you were the one that was screaming and wasting your breath while chasing after me…" Alaylle taps the top of her head with her chain. "I never really got why people scream out like that when they strike… I mean… isn't like a giant warning?"

"Shut up!" Ann gathers mana in her hands and then thrusts it towards herself. "Heal! Blessing! Increase Agili-Owwww!" Alaylle has quickly struck Ann in the stomach with her chain again. Ann swings her mace at Alaylle in a diagonal swing, and Alaylle sidesteps to avoid getting hit by the mace. While Alaylle sidesteps, Ann tries the spell again. "Increase Agility!" Ann quickly runs away from Alaylle using the enhanced speed granted from her spell. "Heal! Angelus! Ha! Now let's see you hit me!"

Alaylle quietly watches Ann… and does nothing. Ann growls. "Come on! I took all that effort to put my spells up, and you aren't gonna attack? Fine! I will!" Ann charges at Alaylle again, with her magically enhanced speed.

Alaylle blinks her eyes. 'So much faster!' She tries to sidestep a strike from Ann, but is too slow to avoid the mace. Her strike hits Alaylle in the right shoulder-and bounces harmlessly off the armored cloth. The mace bounces off the cloth, causing Ann to lose her balance. 'Whaaa… she's wide open! Steel Twirl!' Alaylle swings her chain quickly around her, hitting Ann, and then uses the precious momentum to bring the chain above her head and then in a downward strike, all in one smooth stroke.

Ann goes literally flying through the air, her magic enhancing even the speed at which she was launched at, spinning horizontally at least twenty times before crashing into the floor. She lands face first onto the floor, dropping her mace, and slides a few feet before coming to a stop. Ann tries to get up, but then quickly stays down when the nausea catches up from spinning so much in the air. "Ungh…"

Neyrilla nods once. "That's enough! Alaylle has disarmed as disabled her opponent. Ann, your challenge is dismissed."

Ann answers with a groan, still suffering from the nausea of spinning.

Alaylle bows to Ann and then looks confused. "Uhh… Mommy? Can you tell me what all of this is about?"

Neyrilla laughs softly. "Sorry about this, Alaylle…" Corin walks over to Neyrilla and nods with a grin on his face. "We meant to tell you this tonight, but this came up!"

Neyrilla gently grabs Alaylle's ponytail and starts leading her into the building. "Well then… let's find a more comfortable spot and we'll tell you what this is all about."

Alaylle just blinks her eyes blankly and nods while being dragged by her ponytail.

End of Chapter 25

---

Chapter 26 Preview!

Alaylle: "Eeeehh? You mean all this time-?"

Neyrilla: "That's correct… sorry for keeping it a secret, but…"

Corin: "Some things just have to wait until a person is ready, you know?

In the Next Chapter: "The Family's Business"

Alaylle: "This clan thing sure is new to me…"

---


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